Tony, Tony, Tony… What have you been up to? First you entice us with your crazy stunts in Ong Bak and follow up with knockout Tom Yum Goong but then you've really fallen off the radar. The guy literally blasted onto the screen from nowhere and became an instant star in the martial arts world. With Jackie Chan and Jet Li aging and Donnie Yen producing material of inconsistent quality, action fans were hungry for a worthy successor. We thought that person may have been Tony Jaa and it still might be.

Fans of Jaa will know that he had been previously tied into the worst 10-year movie contract ever heard of by Sahamongkol Film International. The contract prevented him from doing any film other than the ones they wanted. Jaa had something of a breakdown and there were even stories that Jaa left the sets of the Ong Bak sequels to go and become a monk in a monastery. The 10 years expired and the guy is now back on the big screen – but wait! He signed on again with the same damn production company and they are once again being complete morons! Following recent news that Jaa had signed on to star in the next Fast & Furious movie, Sahamongkol Film once again threatened legal action against Jaa stating that he'd broken his contract by taking on work without their permission. For us lucky movie fans, it looks like Jaa is going ahead with Fast 7 despite this, as well as Hong Kong movie SPL 2 with Wu Jing! Excellent news indeed!

Jaa's movies have always been simple movies reminiscent of Van Damme movies from yesteryear. They have a lot of heart and a lot of ass kicking. In the original Tom Yum Goong (AKA The Protector),Jaa's elephants get kidnapped and brought over to Australia. Jaa goes over and gets them back. Simple! The movie was pretty badass, featuring an amazing one take sequence as Jaa makes his way to the top of a building, taking down loads of bad guys on the way.

There was also a crazy Jaa vs. 50 bad guys sequence towards the end of the movie. It was pretty cool stuff for martial arts fans, especially as Jaa has always looked like he could really do the stuff we see him do in his movies.

In Tom Yum Goong 2, Jaa finds himself in a predicament as his elephant is kidnapped once again, but the agenda is not so simple this time round. Big bad guy Mr. LC (RZA),a martial arts fan, wishes to use the kidnapped elephant to leverage Jaa to do his evil bidding. Jaa must find a way to stop RZA and save his elephant, all while being hunted by what appears to be almost everyone in Thailand.

The premise sounds like the prefect setup for loads of ass kicking and mad stunts just like the original. Unfortunately, despite all the good intentions, the end product just doesn't deliver.

We don't really need a story but some essence of interconnecting events would be nice. The first half of the movie seems to be dominated by a random and ridiculously long drawn out motorbike chase scene, featuring some really terrible CGI. Gone are the real chases and stunts that we saw Jaa performing in Ong Bak, instead we have third-rate special effects and extreme ridiculousness. It doesn't even make any sense why this whole portion of the movie exists but it does.

Surprisingly, Petchtai Wongkamlao as cop sidekick Mark, was probably the best thing in this film. He provided timely comic relief whereas JeeJa Yanin, from Chocolate and Raging Phoenix fame, is shamefully underused and portrayed to be almost useless next to our hero. Rhatha Phongam is also underused, present only to serve as eye candy.

The single worst, most unforgivable element of this movie is RZA (though the other American actors come close). He has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. No on-screen presence, no charisma, terrible acting, terrible fighting, just terrible terrible terrible. I pray that no one ever allows him on a film set ever again or perhaps he should try method acting and really die at the end of his next movie.

So far things are not sounding too good. So how was the fighting? To be honest, it wasn't that great either. After the first half of the movie was dominated by the silly motorbike chase sequence, we would hope the latter half would focus more on the fights. But once the fights begin, we are not given anything that even comes close to spectacle that was seeing Jaa take down 50 guys back to back. There was nothing new and the over use of CGI ultimately reduced everything to a farce. The first fight with Maresse Crump showed potential which was just never fully realized.

It would also have been nice to see Jaa go up against several worthy adversaries instead of a handful of not so great bad guys who just don't seem to be able to die.

All I was hoping for was a competent martial arts movie and at the end of the day, that isn't what we got. Even in the absence of Jaa's original movies, I would not recommend this.

A disappointment from start to finish, I suggest you check out Jaa's earlier efforts and keep your fingers crossed that his US debut will deliver what Tom Yum Goong 2 couldn't.

One to miss and no, I didn't watch it in 3D and can't imagine it would do anything other than make the experience even worse.

Rating 5 out of 10.

FOR THIS AND OTHER REVIEWS CHECK OUT MAXIMUMEXTREME.NET

Before I get to why I disliked this movie, I have a confession to make— I'm reviewing "Protector 2" even though I never saw the first film in this series. And, based on what I just saw, I doubt if I'll bother seeing the first. My problem isn't with the martial arts abilities of the leading man, Ton Jaa. Instead, my problem is with the brainlessness of the script. Again and again, the stunts are so impossible that you just have to laugh. However, the biggest laugh is at the end where the big plot twist is, believe it or not, an exploding elephant. Yes, I said EXPLODING ELEPHANT!!!

When the film begins, the film seems a lot like a Lassie film. It's about a boy, Kham (Tony Jaa) and his elephant and both are best buddies. One day, a baddie and his punks come to Kham and demand he sells them his elephant. Why they must have THAT particular elephant never is made clear and I am pretty sure Thailand has more than one elephant—as they sure go to a heck of a lot of trouble to get that one! However, soon they elephant-nap the creature—and Kham is in hot pursuit. However, when he goes to the baddie's hideout, the guy is already dead and the police think Kham is responsible. Soon it's not only the cops after Kham but the BIGGER baddie who hired the first baddie to steal the pachyderm—and he practically has an army to catch Kham!

What follows is one fight scene after another after another after another. On one hand, you have to admire the film's energy as well as Jaa's skills. However, it's all ruined because the writer and director couldn't leave well enough alone. They SHOULD have relied on Jaa's skills but instead there is one insane stunt after another after another —and many of them are simply impossible. The worst is the one where Kham falls what looks like about 40 stories and he lands in a pool and is just fine!!! Also, seeing him take on 200 bikers and winning is just too much! Additionally, the fire sequence, though cool to look at, just made no sense at all.

Speaking of making no sense at all, let's get back to the elephant. Apparently some nutty guy is trying to disrupt the peace process between the fictional countries of East and West Katana. So, he steals Kham's elephant and rigs him up as a gigantic bomb! I am not kidding—a giant bomb! Frankly, I cannot believe they made this with a straight face, it's that silly.

Now do not get the idea that I hate martial arts film. I actually love them and have seen several hundred and adore the GOOD ones. Give me a Sonny Chiba, Gina Carano or Shaw Brothers flick any day, but you can keep your brainless stunts and plots. What a giant waste of talent. The only way I think folks could enjoy this one is if friends watch it and keep a tally of times Jaa SHOULD

I'll admit from the outset that the first WARRIOR KING is one of my favourite films of all time; a top-notch martial arts epic that you can watch over and over again. It has everything I'd ever want from a movie, so this belated sequel had plenty to live up to. Inevitably, it simply can't hold a candle to the first movie.

But wait...everyone's panned this film, saying it's pretty terrible. I say otherwise. It's no WARRIOR KING, but it is better than the horrid ONG BAK sequels, at least. Sure, the power of the first film is diluted here with the needless and rubbish CGI effects, the unnecessary wirework and the greater silliness of the storyline, but at times there are flashes of the old magic.

One of the biggest disappointments is Tony Jaa himself. He's noticeably aged and just doesn't cut it like in the early days of ONG BAK. I expected more from him. Still, it's nice to have Thai film regulars like Petchtai Wongkamlao and CHOCOLATE's Jeeja Yanin on board, even if their screen time is limited. Unfortunately, somebody decided that the appalling rapper-wannabe-film-star RZA (THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS) would make a good villain, and boy, were they wrong.

Admittedly, WARRIOR KING 2 starts off on a poor footing; the whole look is incredibly cheesy, and that dumb chase seems to go on forever. But then things change, and after a time the plot melts away to leave the whole second half of the film one big action sequence. And this was the part I really enjoyed, laughing at the whole "all black guys are evil" theme, enjoying the unstoppable Marrese Crump, and taking delight in the fight choreography. This movie's no classic, but fans of the genre will probably enjoy it anyway.