Dir: Prachya Pinkaew
Writers: Michael Dougherty, Kongdej Jaturanrasamee, Piyaros Thongdee, Napalee, Joe Wannapin
With: Jin Xing, Nathan Jones, Petchthai Wongkamlao, Tony Jaa

Finally, Warrior King aka Tom Yum Goong has hit American shores. Only here it is known as The Protector, and has been cut from 119 minutes to 92 minutes. And I will be crap glad when the DVD comes out so I can see the rest of the movie.
Where to start, where to start? The obvious comparisons between Tony Jaa and movie sensations like Jet Li and Jackie Chan will be made before, during and after this film. But, while Li and Chan both studied acting as well as martial arts, Tony Jaa was a poor kid growing up in Thailand watching everything he could about his idol, Bruce Lee.
He worked his way up, gaining every break he has ever had on his own, and developed his style of fighting based on Muay Thai Kick fighting, and other styles.
One of the thing that make this film so good as well as amazing is because there isn't just the standard Kung Fu and Karate like in so many other films.
As I said, Jaa is a master of Muay Thai Kickboxing, which he uses in about 90% of the movie. Evan a non-fighter can see the difference between karate and Muay Thai. It is through the variations of his fighting style as he fights opponents who use everything from crane style Kung Fu to that Brazilian style of Martial Art I can't think of right now, that the problem of comparing him to other martial artists is unfair.
But, the plot. Not quite a groan, but close and all thanks to the butchering of the original movie to suit American viewers. Yes, it is full of plot holes (again, the lousy cuts) unintentional humor (Thai accented newswomen on Aussie TV?). But it was nowhere near as bad as some uncut American films I have seen. Cough Gigli Cough.
Protector has no real action for the first fifteen minutes or so. What we are given however is worth the wait. Scenes of rural Thailand and the elephant, the bonding between Jaa and his animals that he is sworn to protect, all that stuff, Jaa and his father and Jaa starting to learn about animal husbandry.

Actually, the only truly horrible part came when they stuck in that crappy, sucky, disgustingly bad Hip Hop music. What? Doesn't anyone in Hollywood know any other type of music? Do they have to try and ruin every film by sticking that garbage in?
The intended comic relief came from Mum Jok Mok plays a cop of Thai descent in Sydney. He has a number of funny lines which will probably only be funny to American viewers if you know anything about Thai culture.
Usually getting the audience to get excited for the hero in an action movie means you have to have a villain or group of villains (Nazi's, Zombies, gang-bangers, Russian mob, etc) and Protector is no different.
The Thai mobsters and their bosses in the Asian crime family in Sydney are an evil, creepy bunch. The fights were some of the best caught on film that I have seen in a long time.
And what is more, they didn't use gimmicks like ropes or special FX, so everything you saw him he really did. Think about that as you watch the flying fist festival that made Kill Bill Vol. 1's restaurant scene look like a video of a Barney family reunion.
So, The Protector has a good plot, a decent cast and better acting the we normally expect from your standard martial arts film, with excellent cinematography and lots and lots of beautiful, bone snapping action that should be able to impress any Martial Arts action movie enthusiast.
Plus a boat chase that would make James Bond cringe, some homage shots to Jackie Chan and a beautiful stripper in a mud-bath Jacuzzi. And the baby elephant is cute..