- 7
...a completely gonzo martial arts extravaganza...
—Pam Grady Reel
- 6
...delivers a steady stream of cheap B-movie thrills, plus two positive messages for young people: Be nice to animals, and when in doubt, always aim for the tendons.
—Nathan Rabin Onion AV Club
- 6
...watching Jaa fight his way to the top of a Guggenheim-like building in one long, uninterrupted take is flat-out awesome, even if most of the rest of the film is far from it.
—Luke Y. Thompson E!
- 5
...you should see director Prachya Pinkaew's movie for its complicated choreography -- especially an impressive four-minute take in which Kham winds his way up the stairs of a four-story den of debauchery, destroying everyone and everything in his path -- not for the acting, dialogue or production value.
—Christy Lemire Chicago Sun-Times
- 5
...there are some awesomely choreographed fights and plenty of action but too much of it is buried in an overly sentimental plot about a boy and his dog (or in this case, elephant) that must have lost something in the translation from Thai.
—Pete Hammond Maxim
- 5
Directed by Prachya Pinkaew from a screenplay reducible to a single exclamation ("You stole my elephant!"), The Protector supersizes the formula of Ong Bak, his previous film starring Mr. Jaa's muscles.
—Nathan Lee New York Times
- 5
...little more than a disjointed succession of kick-ass action scenes motivated by a country bumpkin's quest to rescue his giant pets from big-city baddies.
—Maitland McDonagh TV Guide
- 4
...despite the lousy cinematography, the laughably breakneck momentum (formulated by eliminating any substantial connective tissue between set pieces), the inconsistent alternation between English and Thai dialogue (replete with awful dubbing), and the impressive but overly choreographed hand-to-hand combat, The Protector partially redeems itself via a thrillingly over-the-top finale that fully exploits Jaa's viscerally violent Muay Thai fighting techniques.
—Nick Schager Slant Magazine
- 4
...an overstuffed action vehicle...
—Robert K. Elder Chicago Tribune
- 4
...sputters...
—Robert K. Elder Los Angeles Times
- 4
Edited for the U.S. with atrocious partial dubbing and an incongruous new score by the RZA, the movie might be a waste if not for the four-minute, single-take restaurant fight scene, and the glorious final sequence, which does for breaking bones what Kill Bill: Vol. 1 did for amputations.
—Luke Y. Thompson LA Weekly
- 3
...even at 84 minutes, the movie's about an hour too long.
—Kyle Smith New York Post