X
- 2006
- R
- The Weinstein Company
- 1 h 23 m
- 2006
- R
- The Weinstein Company
- 1 h 23 m
Summary The Protector is the highly anticipated full bodied martial arts epic starring international superstar Tony Jaa. His world shaped by ancient traditions, a young Thai fighter (Jaa) is called upon to defend his people and their honor after outsiders invade their home and destroy all that is sacred. Fueled by desire to protect a way of life...
Directed By: Prachya Pinkaew
- 2006
- R
- The Weinstein Company
- 1 h 23 m
- 2006
- R
- The Weinstein Company
- 1 h 23 m
The Protector
52
7.9
Where to Watch
Summary The Protector is the highly anticipated full bodied martial arts epic starring international superstar Tony Jaa. His world shaped by ancient traditions, a young Thai fighter (Jaa) is called upon to defend his people and their honor after outsiders invade their home and destroy all that is sacred. Fueled by desire to protect a way of life...
Directed By: Prachya Pinkaew
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 22 Critic Reviews
52
41% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
41% Mixed
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
18% Negative
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 22 Critic Reviews
52
41% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
41% Mixed
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
18% Negative
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
The Protector is the nuttiest movie I've seen all year, and I've seen the last 20 minutes of "The Wicker Man."
Delivers a steady stream of cheap B-movie thrills, plus two positive messages for young people: Be nice to animals, and when in doubt, always aim for the tendons.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 34 User Ratings
7.9
71% Positive
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
24% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
6% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 34 User Ratings
7.9
71% Positive
24 Ratings
24 Ratings
24% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
6% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
Best fight movie ever! The amount of enemies that Tony defeats with several incredible moves is very little explored in Hollywood movies
Report
The movie is a series of ever more elaborate fight sequences and increasingly more and larger opponents.
In truth, only hard-core martial-arts fans will be able to keep from squirming in their seats with boredom through at least some parts of this 82-minute kablammo-fest.
A relentless focus on action over character and story will leave more mainstream viewers cold.
Anytime Jaa isn't on screen, The Protector sputters.
This ludicrous Quentin Tarantino-chosen low-budget movie features choppy editing and an amateurish script, and it switches strangely back and forth between dubbing and subtitles.
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
Report
Why are people rating this film so highly? I'll never understand. Maybe it's the high-octane action sequences. Yeah, that's probably it. While they are enjoyable to watch, it's not enough to call it a movie.
It's unpleasant to watch at times, even the action sequences, and, like a few people in here already said, the stunts are a bit repetitive, especially where Tony Jaa takes out the guys in black suits. A lot of arms and legs twisting, it's like he has a fetish for this sort of thing. It's too overblown to call it a signature move or something like that.
The scene where Tony Jaa fights his way up in the VIP area is quite enjoyable to watch. The roughly 5 minutes action sequences were done in a single shot, the camera work in that scene was excellent. Can't say the same about the editing though, it's really choppy. One minute, there was a boat chase and then a random explosion in the next shot. Tony Jaa jumps on top of a van from the bridge but the movie cuts from him on the bridge straight away to him on top of a van. It was either cut too quickly or they didn't film him actually jumping on top of the van but either way, "what the f***?"
There's more but these are just a few examples of bad editing, it cuts to the next shot too quickly. It's like the film skipped about 2 shots during the action sequences, that's the best way to explain it but you'll have to see for yourself if you want to fully understand what this is about as it's quite noticeable.
The movie strangely moves back and forth between dubbing and subtitles, but why even bother with the subtitles? The story is basically about Tony Jaa who embarks on a journey from his home in Thailand to Sidney to rescue his elephants from poachers and Vietnamese gangsters who runs a Thai restaurant containing, in the storage area, ready to be butchered and consumed exotic animals.
There's also no reason for this film to be overly sentimental at the end as there are no character development to begin with so why should we care how Tony Jaa feels about what happened to his elephant? There's no spoilers in this review but don't expect to be shocked or blown away. It's all laid out for you so even if you don't speak Thai or Mandarin, you'll understand what the movie is about anyway.
It's probably better if you don't read the subtitles, it makes it less embarrassing as the dialogues consist of Tony Jaa screaming "where's my elephant". Other than that, there's very little of it but the embarrassing English dubbing is what you'll have to sit through if you're going to watch this movie.
Recommended for action junkies, martial art fans or anyone who's highly action-oriented. This movie is for you! You can enjoy all the bone crushing, head smashing and over-the-top action sequences without actually using your brain. Those expecting more, such as a less absurd plot and better acting, should look elsewhere as there are kung fu movies out there with a more highly cerebral story line as well as eye-popping action sequences.
Tony Jaa might be as good as Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li but after Ong Bak, action movies starring Tony Jaa walks familiar trends so I won't be looking forward to another one. The only good thing about this movie is the action, everything else is pretty much forgettable.
Report
From first episode to the last, the Protector, serves its audience a bundle of outdated cliches kept together loosely with a boring and slow paced story. Directing seems to have been done by a team of film students, all of whom wanted to copy their favorite superhero scene. The only redeeming aspects are Okan Yalabik's performance and the soundtrack (at times). 1005 of the remaining 1048 IMDB voters are NON-US,which definitely tells us this show is mostly liked by the Turks...I understand the excitement of Turkish viewers and the high ratings coming from them, but i'm warning you if your time is valuable skip this one.
What Netflix was thinking while shooting this disaster is beyond me. Even Iron Fist looks like freakin The Lord of The Rings compared to this
Report
Production Company
Sahamongkolfilm Co.,
TF1 International,
Baa-Ram-Ewe,
Golden Network
Release Date Sep 8, 2006
Duration 1 h 23 m
Rating R
Tagline Vengeance knows no mercy.
