One doesn’t go into an action movie expecting the strongest plot or character development. For those elements to be present in the movie is usually an added bonus. Most action movies usually contain stories and characters that enter familiar territory, but are generally serviceable enough that one can look the other way, as the movie delivers on what it’s promised, that being an adrenaline-fueled good time. However, if the plot and characters of an action movie start to border on being flat-out bad, the film needs to do a lot to make up for that fact in order to still be entertaining. And such is the case with Triple Threat, a martial arts movie that works hard to make up for its shortcomings and often succeeds.
The film follows two mercenaries named Payu (Tony Jaa) and Long Fei (Tiger Chen), who while on a mission in a Thailand village to free some prisoners, are double-crossed by the man who hired them. Devereaux (Michael Jai White), whose real goal was to free his leader, a terrorist named Collins (Scott Adkins). Leaving Payu and Long Fei to die, Devereaux and his team destroy the village and kill many of the villagers. Payu and Long Fei barely escape, as does one of the villagers named Jaka (Iko Uwais), who vows revenge on everyone who destroyed the village.
The plot can be extremely difficult to follow in this movie. The film is full of characters shifting allegiances and double-crossing one another that it’s hard to tell who’s truly on whose side. It eventually becomes routine not too far into the movie that someone will eventually turn on one another and begin duking it out, leaving the constant plot twist element of this movie to quickly lose its luster.
The film almost solely relies on this method of storytelling, and it’s essentially a half-hearted attempt to have any semblance of plot. While one doesn’t go into a movie like Triple Threat looking for an award-winning story, it still needs to feel cohesive in order to keep the audience engaged enough to get to the end of the movie. The plot of Triple Threat can feel incredibly disjointed due to its constant backstabbing and double crossing, and while things begin to make sense by the end of the movie, the journey getting there can often feel disorienting.
The film does take a breather at times in between action sequences, though these moments often tend to feel worse. The dialogue can often feel flat, and the acting from much of the supporting cast can often feel cringe-worthy. When the film shifts the story to the city of Maha Jaya, there’s a subplot involving a woman named Tian Xiao Xian, played by Celina Jade, who’s trying to rid the city of corruption. This is where the film dips to its lowest in quality, as not only does the dialogue just not feel natural here, but the subplot has very little to do with the rest of the movie, feeling shoehorned in when it could have easily been cut, with Xiao Xian being more of a walking plot device than a real character.
While the film does have some bad dialogue and a story that’s hard to follow, one eventually finds themselves not caring so much as the film actually dedicates most of its time to its action scenes. And what the film lacks in plot, it makes up heavily in these action sequences. When the film kicks things into high gear, it’s extremely entertaining. The action scenes are well choreographed, made up mainly of some intense hand-to-hand combat that one rarely gets to see as much in movies these days. The film often feels like an adrenaline rush, though not relentless, and each of the action scenes find themselves in the middle of not being too quick but not being drawn out.
The film is essentially a “who’s who” of MMA fighters, and while everyone gets their moments to shine, some are in a much more limited capacity than others. Tony Jaa and Tiger Chen are the two that get the most consistent amount of fight time in the movie, and because of that, they easily get many of the film’s best action scenes. Iko Uwais, who starred in The Raid which was easily much more relentless than this, feels like the most restrained of the bunch here, though he still gets plenty of solid moments of his own, just not to the point of Jaa or Chen, despite being on screen nearly as long as them. Meanwhile Scott Adkins and Michael Jai White also get in some great fights but considering their overall screen time is limited more to the beginning and end of the movie, they really don’t get to stand out until then.
Triple Threat is the embodiment of an action movie where one goes simply for the action. It lacks a cohesive plot, and when it does try to throw together a story, it’s often filled with some bad acting and terrible dialogue. However, the film more than delivers on its kinetic, martial-arts-driven energy, mostly taking up its 90 minute runtime with plenty of off-the-wall action sequences that serve as great mindless entertainment. While it’s an uneven movie, the positives easily make for a fun time.
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