THE PROTECTOR (2006)
Tony Jaa, Thailand’s answer to Jet Li, and the man all too ready to fill those now empty shoes (Li has recently retired from martial arts films) stars here as the titular Protector. He guards here an elephant (seriously), from evil forces, and gangsters. His elephant, at the beginning of the film has been kidnapped, and now he’s off to rescue him.
Somehow, in some way, getting a hold of a perfect elephant gets one unimaginable power, and Thailand’s elephants–the best of them anyway–evidently have their own martial arts expert bodyguards. If this sounds unclear and confusing, that’s because it is; the whole back story of the elephants, their relationship to the king and his power is so muddily told that there is no hope of ever making any sense of the Protector. Better to sit back, watch and enjoy the fight scenes, which are exciting and inventive.
The narrative is even choppier here in the States than it must have been in the native Thailand, since the US release (presented by Quentin Tarantino, in a giant title card at the beginning of the film; ho-hum, won’t he ever go away?) is a good 30 minutes shorter than the original. What has been cut, to be sure, is character development, story, and plot– all things that get in the way of the ass-kickings.
Those come fast and often enough, but without the slightest justification. One almost has to admire the nihilistic economy of this (whether it’s Tarantino’s and the Weinsteins’ idea or the original fimmakers’); we know why we’re here, so why spend all that time buttering us up for the violence? Let’s, shall we, just get down to the nitty-gritty.
On that score, Protector’s a satisfying film, a worthy entry to the genre. Still, it would have been nice if they’d assumed that we aren’t any dumber or so much more impatient than audiences in other countries, and allowed us all that story that would have made more sense of it all.
HDFEST RATING:
Overall: B-
Acting: B
Plot: C
Originality: C
Enjoyability: A-
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