Previously....Ong Bak3

Hey all! Today, I'll be reviewing Ong Bak 3. Personally, I didn't like this movie much. It was a weak ending to a fairly decent trilogy. The story was bland and the action wasn't as good as the previous movie. It did answer some questions from the previous movie, however, more questions were left unanswered.

The Story:

Previously on Ong Bak: Tien, a son of a noble, was trained by a group of outlaws to become the ultimate warrior. Once his training was complete, Tien went to seek revenge on Lord Rajasena but failed due to his bad karma. Rajasena captures Tien and has his soldiers nearly beat Tien to death. Rajasena proclaims Tien to be executed, however, a messenger from the King (yeah, apparently ol Raja isn't the king) announces Tien a free man. Tien is taken to a village to be healed, but assassins attempt to take his life once more. Tien is saved, and continues on his healing process. Father Bua, a monk, says that Tien is cursed from his bad karma and will always have a short life. The villagers, and Tien's friend/ love interest, Pim (played by Primorata Dejudom) pray for his bad karma to go away so Tien may be curse free. Meanwhile, Lord Rajasena begins to experience hallucinations and insanity due the fact he has been cursed. A crow, Bhuti, says that he can remove the curse if Rajasena comes to his temple. Bhuti's true intentions are shown when Raja arrives and the crow decapitates Rajasena. Bhuti becomes the new lord and ruler. Back at the village, Tien begins to meditate and remove his bad karma, but he is attacked by Bhuti's men. Tien defeats them, but finds out that the village had been burned down and the villagers have become slaves. Tien goes off to defeat Bhuti and free the villagers.

                                                         Tien and Prim dancing together.

The Good:

Honestly? Not much. There's too many things going on at once at it's hard to keep up most of the time. The action's okay for the most part.

The Bad:

The story. The characters. Even the fight scenes are dull. I don't understand why Bhuti the crow needs to kill Rajasena, nor do I see his motivation for going after Tien. Tony Jaa barley says 12 lines in this movie. They had to get dependent of the comedic relief again, but it was over the top and predictable. As for character development, there is none. Most of the fights rely too much on slow motion and I really hate that. The only movie that pulled slo-mo was The Matrix. Slow motion never makes martial art movies look good. Never. Why did they decide to show a cursed Rajasena in the last movie? It made no sense. Overall, this movie was garbage compared to Ong Bak 2.

Conclusion:

Tony Jaa's a great martial artist, but this movie rarely showed off his skills. The plot moves slow, the story is going in too many directions, and nobody has told me what Tien did to gain bad karma. Ong Bak 3 is a flop. It's a improper send off to end a trilogy. I suggest those who want to watch the Ong Bak movies, just watch the first two. The third will leave you disappointed.

2.5 warrior elephants out of 5.