What I Rented - The Protector

It’s very difficult to review a movie like The Protector, where unbelievable and fantastic action sequences are undermined at every turn by a clichéd and overly plotted script focusing on the intimate relationship between man and elephant (no, you read that right). When Cam’s (Tony Jaa) sacred elephants are kidnapped by an evil crime syndicate, he must journey to Sydney, Australia in order to reclaim his beloved pachyderms. While there, he fights his way through numerous bad guys and uncovers a city wide criminal organization.

The character work and storyline are barely comprehensible (even in the uncut version I saw), but the action sequences are incredible (minus a sloppily filmed and edited boat chase). Tony Jaa’s fight choreography is easily the best I’ve seen in ages.

Take for instance a four minute long, one-take, fight extravaganza in which Jaa climbs up four floors and takes on at least thirty bad guys in a brothel/casino/restaurant complex.. It’s an unbelievable fusion of fighting and top quality camera work and should be included on lists of the best tracking shots of all time.

Or there’s the bone break orgy in which Jaa fights his way through fifty people by breaking close to a thousand bones. If that weren’t enough he then finds his way into a room with four hulking manbeasts (one guy hurtles a baby elephant through a glass pane!!) and a middle aged woman who suddenly becomes a whip mistress. To fight them off he chooses the only weapon available to him, elephant bones. It’s all wildly original, borderline insane, and thrilling.

Except, there’s no emotional weight behind any of it. The most fully developed relationship in the movie is between Tony Jaa and his elephant friend. Everyone else is just set dressing. So, if you just want to see some brilliant action scenes, The Protector will certainly serve that up in spades, but you want to see a great action film, you’ll have to wait until Jaa starts choosing better scripts.

Star Rating – Movie - ** out of 4
Action Scenes - **** out of 4