Movie Review: Ong Bak 2: The Beginning

Craig D. Lindsey - The News and Observer

Knees Doesn't Please in Prequel

KNEES, Knees, Knees -- what happened?

For those who don't who "Knees" is, I'm referring to Tony Jaa, the Thai martial-arts star who uses his knees quite often (and quite brilliantly) in his action movies.

As one of the few human beings around these parts who has gotten giddy whenever Jaa's films hit local theaters, I've gotta say I'm disappointed by his latest offering, "Ong Bak 2: The Beginning."

For starters, it takes almost 30 minutes for Jaa to get into some extreme, knee-related damage.

"Ong Bak 2" is actually a prequel to the original "Ong Bak," although both movies couldn't be more different. While the previous film was set in present-day Thailand, this installment trips all the way back to Thailand in the 15th century. And there's another major difference between the two: The first one was very entertaining.

As I mentioned before, Jaa doesn't put those knees to work immediately this go-round. The first act is nothing but story setup: The young son of a slain nobleman gets taken in by guerilla fighters, who tirelessly trains him in various martial arts. He grows up to be Jaa's unstoppable, vengeful warrior, who goes on a mission to take down the villainous warlord who ordered the hit on his parents.

"Ong Bak 2" is more straight-faced than the previous Jaa flicks I've seen. You could say Jaa takes this film particularly seriously since he also handles co-directing duties (along with Panna Rittikrai, who did the martial-arts choreography for the original "Ong Bak").

Jaa concentrates so much on making this movie look slicked-out and Jerry Bruckheimer-ish, it's like he kept forgetting to go in front of the camera to do some butt-whooping. He does appease his fans by providing a few decent fight moments. There is one moment when, in what seems like a nod to Jackie Chan's "Drunken Master" movies, he drunkenly takes down a crew of savage slave traders.

"Ong Bak 2" has the trappings of an epic period piece, even though, at its 90-minute-and-some-change length, it feels heavily truncated. And yet the movie proceeds in such a dull, sullen pace you might pray for any action to go down, just so you can get away from the story and see Knees at work. Not to mention that, for a movie set in an ancient, mythical time, there are moments in "Ong Bak 2" that are just weird. Like when Jaa's warrior-in-training does battle with what I can only describe as a vampire lady. (It's like Jaa threw this in, pitifully, to appeal to all the "Twilight" fans).

Thankfully, the last half-hour or so has Jaa finally throwing those knees in the air and going to town on a whole army. But even this dazzlingly choreographed display of bone-crushing bliss isn't enough to make you forget the banality that you had to sit through.

Jaa has already confirmed that "Ong Bak 3" is in the works, immediately picking up where this movie left off. I hope Jaa loosens up and gives us wall-to-wall knees in the next movie. Because I don't think I can take another go-round of Knees not being -- well, Knees!

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