I enjoyed The Protector also. I thought it was much better than Ong-Bak. I must have said aloud "holy sh--" about 7 or 8 times because some of the fights were just ridiculous (in a good way). In Ong-Bak, the elbows and knee drops got repetitive by the end. The Protector entertained me all the way thru.
The Protector opens with a beautiful, but simplfied, display of Thai culture and its relationship with elephants. It sets up Tony Jaa's mission to retrieve the elephants. Once he gets started, he opens up a can of Muay Thai. Johnny, one of the villians, was an impressive fighter also. The dude with the dreadlocks was very flashy but I don't think his flips would be of any use in a real fight. He looked like he walked off the set of "You Got Served", the breakdancing movie. The trailer highlights some of the fight scenes but there's plenty more. What I wasn't crazy about was the story. I don't mind that it takes a backseat to Tony and merely connect him from one fight to the next. But if someone could weave a story with substance and higher purpose, if could really be something special. A guy goes into town to look for some stolen property and beats up 100 guys along the way is a little.....simple. Tony's character too is simple. He's has a certain childish quality, and is limited to "Where's my elephant?". The guy I'm sure has charisma cuz he does smile in the outtakes. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see what he comes up with next.
The video was ok. The audio is blah. Mostly a three front channel presentation.
