Ong Bak 3

Ratings: 0.5/10

Genre: Action

Overall value for time and money: 0.0/10

This movie defnitely ranks as one of the worst movies I've watched. An utter waste of time, and money. Can't believe I was so naive into paying $8.50 for this piece of rubbish movie. This sequel of Ong Bak 3 takes you to what happens after Ong Bak 2. The main lead, Tien gets captured by the evil Highness, gets tortured and have all his limps broken, was on the brink of death but through mediation managed to miraculously heal both his physical body and ominous karma.

After Ong Bak 2, probably one of the best action movies I've caught which didn't rely much on CG, I was so psyched about its sequel. But after watching Ong Bak 3, I can only shake my head with extreme disgust and say that the director is extremely delusional. Both movies are worlds apart, or universes apart... This movie has too much CG, too much fake CG as a matter of fact, which makes it look like a low budget, low class movie. Story development was like a rollercoaster ride, and story plot was a total flop.

I won't even include my "*major spoilers ahead*" warning this time, because I will lay everything right here right now so to save your precious time and money. Even if you're an Ong Bak fan like I am, or was, don't let curiosity lead you to commit one of the worst watches of all time. So many times throughout the movie I wanted to simply walk out of the theatre... but stayed in my seat hoping that things would change for the better... only to come to terms with the sad fact that everything went downhill as the movie progressed.

I mentioned that the director was delusional because in this movie, he portrayed himself like a god, or deity, in particular like Buddha... meditating and recieving enlightenment and divinity. Well, deities are not supposed to use violence, so, the main appeal of the Ong Bak franchise is already no longer there. Instead of action packed scenes, you'll be greeted with a s***load of disturbing horror scenes and draggy romantic scenes. The horror scenes were present because the Highness was hexed by his previous mentor whom he poisoned, so he started hallucinating and the only remedy he knows of is to seek the help of a demon crow fighter (also featured on Ong Bak 2), who later killed the Highness and took his role.

The draggy romantic scenes were such because they added no additional merit to the plot of the movie... and the scenes kinda made me feel that the director wanted to have a go at a different genre but failed epicly. There were many other redundant and draggy scenes, such as the dancing of the female lead, and Tien's mediation scenes. Even the comic relief (this mad man) was an epic flop. I could only force myself to fake laugh at certain no-brainer lines.

The reason this movie failed terribly was because of a number of factors. But most importantly, it didn't accomplish what "Ong Bak" movies were supposed to... satisfy its audience with senseless fighting. I shared the theatre with many, almost 90% of guys, which I assume were all there to relax and enjoy a good action pack movie. But no, there was little action, instead, there were horror scenes (which totally didn't add any meaning to the film but redundancy) and forced romantic scenes. Too much focus on Tien's rehabilitation, showing him practise fight stance like dance moves. The ultimate villian in Ong Bak 2, the Highness was nothing more than a wimp in this episode and died off so easily... Such an extreme change of plot.

At the ending scene, Tien was wearing a white robe and carrying a staff, reminded me of Moses, which I was sure Tony Jaa wanted to impersonate intentionally. He wanted to make himself look divine, and this movie was his platform for doing that. There was even a Buddha-like statue with his facial features on it. I couldn't believe how ridiculous and delusional this movie was, I almost puked with disgust in the midst of the movie and the saving grace for this movie was the ending theme song. Even the starting scene was like a torture slasher movie, which made viewing very uneasy and the prolonged torture scenes didn't do anything other than extending its runtime.

This movie really defined what a bad movie is, and set the benchmark and threshold level for myself. Ong Bak 3 makes other flop movies like May and House of the Dead seem like epic successes. This movie truly is the godfather of flop movies.