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Released by: Magnolia Pictures
Released on: July 29th, 2014.
Director: Prachya Pinkaew
Cast: Tony Jaa, RZA
Year: 2013
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The Movie:
The follow up to the 2005 film The Protector (or, if you prefer, Tom Yum Goong) finds Tony Jaa reprising his role as Kham, a warrior descended from a long line of men who guarded the elephants used in battle by the King Of Thailand. After the events in the first movie (in which Kham tried to retrieve perfect elephants to defend his noble cause, he returns to his home village where he hopes to live a calm, quiet, common life.
Not gonna happen. See, when the villainous Suchart Vilawandei (Adinan Buntanaporn) kidnaps Kham's elephant and then winds up murdered all signs point to Kham as the man who put him six feet under. Thankfully his pal, a cop named Sergeant Mark (Petchtai Wongkamlao), is willing to help him clear his name. At the same time, an arms dealer named LC (RZA) moves into the area and he wants to get Kham out of the picture. As he unleashes a veritable torrent of henchmen in hopes of clobbering poor Kham, the twin nieces of the man he has been accused of murdering show up and look for cold, bloody vengeance.
Shot with an intention to be shown in 3-D (and, in fact, Magnolia has released a Blu-ray 3-D version of the movie as a separate item) The Protector 2 is a pretty mixed bag. The 3-D effects are rendered almost entirely in CGI and the quality of that CGI is… not good. Because of this, pretty much any moment where something flies towards the viewer serves not to add to the excitement or pull us more into the storyline but instead to pull us completely out of the film. Seeing it in 2-D probably doesn't help that much as the effects just look goofy but even if this had been a 3-D presentation, the computer generated effects would still really stick out like a sore thumb.
On top of that, RZA is amazingly awful in this movie. The non-acting style he brought to The Man With The Iron Fists seems to be his preferred method for this picture too but then this is contrasted with some ridiculous moments where he goes completely over the top like Nicholas Cage at his worst (or best, depending on how you feel about Cage). While this can and often does add some unintentional humor to many of his scenes, it probably doesn't wind up helping the movie in any practical way.
So why see it? Because Tony Jaa is still quite capable of kicking ass. While there's nothing in here quite as jaw-dropping as the first two Ong-Bak films there's enough inspired lunacy here in the stunt department to keep things fast paced and entertaining so long as you don't stop to think about it all too much. A motorcycle chase across a rooftop, for example, makes no logical sense whatsoever but it sure does look cool. Jaa, however, maintains some dignity even when things go so completely over the top as to be ludicrous. He's amazingly fast, incredibly nimble and just an amazing martial arts talent and to watch in action is a treat, even when much of what surrounds him in this film is about as goofy as it gets.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Protector 2 looks good on Blu-ray, even in 2-D, in this AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 2.35.1. Compression artifacts are never an issue and while the glaringly obvious CGI graphics stick out like a sore thumb, you can't really fault the way that the disc was put together for that. As this was shot digitally there are no problems with print damage while black levels stay nice and solid. Detail can vary a bit from scene to scene but it is typically quite strong while skin tones look lifelike and natural. Color reproduction is also good and while certain parts of the movie lean towards a greenish brown hue for stylistic effect, overall the picture quality is strong.
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio tracks are provided in the movie's original Thai language as well as in a fairly goof English dubbed track with removable subtitles offered up in English, English SDH and Spanish. Both tracks feature excellent use of directional effects throughout the movie but especially in the action sequences. The score has very good depth and range to it while dialogue stays properly balanced, crisp, clear and audible. There are no problems to note with any hiss or distortion and the mix is actually pretty impressive.
Four behind the scenes featurettes running about twenty-three minutes in length bring us on set and show off some of what the cast and crew went through to finish this picture. The four segments are Cast And Characters, Speaking With The Director, Action And Stunts and Working In 3D. Lots of emphasis on Jaa's stunts and style here, which makes it worth checking out. Additionally we get an AXS TV behind the scenes promo that runs three minutes, a trio of trailers for the feature and trailers for a few other Magnolia properties. Animated menus and chapter selection are included and the Blu-ray case fits inside an accompanying cardboard slipcover.
The Final Word:
While Magnolia's Blu-ray release offers up the movie in very nice shape and with excellent quality lossless audio and a few decent extras, the remarkable action scenes and the fact that Jaa still moves like no one else can't hide the bad CGI, a predictable story and some questionable supporting performances. This is entertaining enough if you're in the right frame of mind for it, because the fights and stunts are fantastic, but keep your expectations in check. It isn't particularly original but it does deliver some impressive action.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
