Review of The Protector (2006) by Goodluckcharlie — 09 Dec 2016

I give it a 5. Why? Because this movie has some factors of a good film, while also having bad parts. I would have given a much lower score, if not for Tony Jaa and the stuntmen's great action and choreography. Other than that, the movie was quite lacking.

Firstly, the movie is based on the story of a man who fights off the bad guys to save his beloved elephant. Now, that's a great start for a movie! Lots of emotional appeal, and the protagonist's motive is clear. It's a pity how the movie turned out, though. Although Tony Jaa really did beat the bad guys up, his relationship with his elephant was not portrayed enough and I really couldn't feel any emotions when he saved his elephant. Like, seriously. Even listening to someone tell the story to me would have gotten me all sad. However, the movie really lacks that aspect, and I feel like it doesn't effectively convey any thoughts or emotions to the audience. It could be because of the frequent foreign language dialogues that I didn't understand, but the movie should've been clearer.

Character development is also seriously lacking. Tony Jaa's character is somewhat introduced well, but the other characters, such as Mark, Madame Rose, and the others aren't really shown very well. Many of them seem extremely simple, with only one motive. They all seem very two-dimensional.

However, I do recommend that you watch this movie at least once. It has great action scenes and it's so satisfying. I must add, though, that the main character is unrealistically invincible. Now, I'm no physician, but I know that getting thrown head-first into a pillar will probably hurt a lot. This movie is very unrealistic, and this is a double-edged sword. For one thing, it shows the rage and sadness that drives the protagonist and instills some emotion into the audience. On the other hand, it's unenjoyable at times because the outcome of the fight is always so obvious.

Lucky for this film, the actors were very skilled and their action scenes were amazing. Better character development and suspense is needed.