Review of Ong Bak 3 (2010) by Alex S — 13 Feb 2011

Sometimes people say you don't need to see parts one, two, etc. of a movie series to understand whatever installment you are watching. In this case, I actively recommend you don't see "Ong Bak" one or two before watching three because this has to be one of the worst conclusions to a trilogy that had a lot of promise, where "promise" is limited strictly to the mindless entertainment that can be gained from watching a man brutally murder hundreds of people with his fists and backflipping off of an elephant's head.

Tony Jaa is back as Tien and after being horribly beaten by his captors from the end of part two, he is rescued, rehabilitated and given a new lease on life in the form of meditation and dance. You'd be forgiven, and even encouraged, if you had stopped reading and decided you will never watch this after investing time with the first two in this series.

It's not that this is a horrible movie because it deviates so far from the first two - this is a horrible movie because it employs thin attempts at character development, ridiculous special effects and deviates so far from the first two.

When you make your name on fight scenes that make most audience members sit there in slack-jawed disbelief, you do not try to pad out a third movie with a peaceful soul-searching journey and about five fight scenes total (one of which is just about the most anti-climactic battle a trilogy of films cold ever resort to).

Oh, but you also have unnecessary comic relief in the form of the village idiot (right through the final seconds into the credits, even), moments of pondering that are supposed to be deep and a whole bunch of other stuff that I'm having a hard time caring about at the moment.

You get some nods to the last film in recurring characters (including a brief cameo from the dastardly assassin guy in part two with a wastebasket for a head) and at times the cinematography is downright gorgeous but there is no way anyone should actively seek this out.