A Thai superhero movie? Sounds weird huh? But why not... After all MIRAGE MAN starring Colombian Martial Artist Marko Zaror was not bad at all, rather interesting despise its lead actor very minimal acting skills.
But when it comes to Thai, it seem they ALWAYS have to include some kind of religious factors into there story, and this is always where they are gonna loose us, the western public. We don't care at all about those. The hero happen to be a fireman... thats enough, we like him already, no need to make him somewhat religious or have a religious side kick... I know that the amulets must come from somewhere, but i was hoping for once of having a Thai movie not including something like that at all. Take Ong Bak, take The Protector, what make them fun is Tony Jaa and the fights, nobody cared for the scenario involving religious artifacts...
When i watch a Thai Movie, its always the problem, the action is usually great but the scenario does not interest me at all. But sadly in this case even the action was not stellar. Its not atrocious, but this is nowhere near close to what you will expect reading "ong bak" and "The protector" on the cover. It seem the only decent martial arts scenes are the ones when the hero is in costume, which i supposed are done by his stunt double... The action scenes of the girls fighting are pretty weak... and when the hero is out of costume he fight terrible also.
But after all its a superhero movie, then how are the special effects, the bad guys, the powers, the costume? Well the power themselves are pretty cool. The black costume ain't bad either, it look a bit in the vein of "Kick Ass" if i can say so don't aspect some Nolan Batsuit, but its decent.
The special effects on the other hand... well in some parts there pretty good, but when they want to overdo, it seem our hero morph into a video game character CGI sequence and it looks TERRIBLE. Super Fake looking. The bad guys, now this one made me wondering. There supposed to be some afghan terrorist, but some of them look Caucasians(??) and the hero and his side kick totally look Thai... The worst part is the leader actually wear eye liner and make up that make him look extremely goofy and the dubbing have him talk with some cheap Arabians accent...when every other character talk normal English. Oh and the dubbing... lol... terrible. I know Americans are not used to dub movies... I'm from Quebec, i watch most of my movies in french dubbing, and we know how to do the job well, but here, it seem some American dudes where just reading the lines and thats it... They even dubbed a guy looking like he is 85 years old with a 40 years old sounding voice....
So in the end what can i say? Well enough action to entertain me, but some of it is good, some of it is bad, the special effects where cool in moments, cheap DTV CGI looking in others, the dubbing horrible, but the part that disappoint the most is the story.
You are never really explain where the amulets come from, the terrorist goal and back story is terrible, and that little boy that seem to have mind control over human and electronic... they never explain where he come from at all... but he become a key part of the story so your like.... WHAT??? So Mercury Man is more or less what Jeremy Jahns would call "You'r not gonna remember it in T-minus 15 minutes"...
But when it comes to Thai, it seem they ALWAYS have to include some kind of religious factors into there story, and this is always where they are gonna loose us, the western public. We don't care at all about those. The hero happen to be a fireman... thats enough, we like him already, no need to make him somewhat religious or have a religious side kick... I know that the amulets must come from somewhere, but i was hoping for once of having a Thai movie not including something like that at all. Take Ong Bak, take The Protector, what make them fun is Tony Jaa and the fights, nobody cared for the scenario involving religious artifacts...
When i watch a Thai Movie, its always the problem, the action is usually great but the scenario does not interest me at all. But sadly in this case even the action was not stellar. Its not atrocious, but this is nowhere near close to what you will expect reading "ong bak" and "The protector" on the cover. It seem the only decent martial arts scenes are the ones when the hero is in costume, which i supposed are done by his stunt double... The action scenes of the girls fighting are pretty weak... and when the hero is out of costume he fight terrible also.
But after all its a superhero movie, then how are the special effects, the bad guys, the powers, the costume? Well the power themselves are pretty cool. The black costume ain't bad either, it look a bit in the vein of "Kick Ass" if i can say so don't aspect some Nolan Batsuit, but its decent.
The special effects on the other hand... well in some parts there pretty good, but when they want to overdo, it seem our hero morph into a video game character CGI sequence and it looks TERRIBLE. Super Fake looking. The bad guys, now this one made me wondering. There supposed to be some afghan terrorist, but some of them look Caucasians(??) and the hero and his side kick totally look Thai... The worst part is the leader actually wear eye liner and make up that make him look extremely goofy and the dubbing have him talk with some cheap Arabians accent...when every other character talk normal English. Oh and the dubbing... lol... terrible. I know Americans are not used to dub movies... I'm from Quebec, i watch most of my movies in french dubbing, and we know how to do the job well, but here, it seem some American dudes where just reading the lines and thats it... They even dubbed a guy looking like he is 85 years old with a 40 years old sounding voice....
So in the end what can i say? Well enough action to entertain me, but some of it is good, some of it is bad, the special effects where cool in moments, cheap DTV CGI looking in others, the dubbing horrible, but the part that disappoint the most is the story.
You are never really explain where the amulets come from, the terrorist goal and back story is terrible, and that little boy that seem to have mind control over human and electronic... they never explain where he come from at all... but he become a key part of the story so your like.... WHAT??? So Mercury Man is more or less what Jeremy Jahns would call "You'r not gonna remember it in T-minus 15 minutes"...