Daily Trojan: Muay Thai Action Outshines Minimal Plot
October 22, 2009
“Ong Bak 2: The Beginning proves that ridiculously awesome and awesomely ridiculous are not interchangeable. Although grand orchestrator Tony Jaa does a striking job with art design and skull-crushing action, the story and one-dimensional characters leave the film soundly in the latter category.
It bites to be an overthrown prince. It burns to be captured as a slave boy. And it really sucks when the bad guy kills your dad. So a kid like Tien (Tony Jaa) is bound to grow up with a few anger issues. Luckily, a bandit king takes him on as a protégé. This Thai version of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves offers Tien a way to settle scores, with as much arm breaking and jaw crunching as possible. Somehow, stampeding elephants and cat women also factor in.”
