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Saat po long 2 (2015)
Tony Ja's first real "A" movie.
When I think back on Tony Jaa's movies I remember mostly "B"/"C+" movies with "A" or "A+" moments. This is his first "A" movie. A majority of his movies in the past were really bad plots that led to fights where he demonstrates his talent as a stuntman, and his fighting style, which is always really tight on his ability to cut distance and overpower his opponents using his short strikes from long distances with his ability to tough out and withstand beatings that should kill him. This fight has all that but unfortunately it seems like they traded his stunt work for CGI...go Hong Kong... they did give him a scene where he and Wu Jing get into an amazing tight out of character fight, almost like an Iko Uwais scene, just still very Jaa. There was also a lot of character development and identity in the choreography, which is nice to see. This adds to my thoughts 15 minutes in when I was thinking about the maturity in both Jaa and Wu Jing. There are no elephants or statues causing a city to get terrorized in this one, it's all about family.
I agree that there were too many coincidences in the plot to consider it great, but I still found it all interesting and well done, up until the last ten minutes. At that point you could almost see the writers cutting the ribbon. None of this is as important as the work from Jaa, Wu, and Zhang.
This is the first non period piece that I'm going to get my girlfriend to try to watch with me. A scene that I predicted at the beginning of the movie made me tear up, and I think that even though she's not as into the action as I am, she'll enjoy it.
Myeong-ryang (2014)
Incredible
If they wanted to do Redcliff in a couple hours, they should have done this. I TRIED to multi-task while watching this movie. I couldn't do it. The beginning didn't hide that it was all set up at all, but it worked in making me look forward to the "Shit going down". There was a point when the movie made me cry. I am not even sure if I was sad or if things were just that intense. It generally takes shows hours and hours of character development before I'll even tear up. This movie pulled it off in no time at all.
The feel is very Lord of the Rings and Red Cliff with the action, but a little bit headier. There were a few things/shots that took me out of it but there is very little distracting from the immersion. Instead of over the top stunt work they kept things simple and used the set and the atmosphere to cause the tension and grandeur even while sprinting through the second half.
I've been waiting for a solid version of the naval side of Thermopylae (300), but at this point, forget it. Whoever would try it has already lost.