It's incredible how a movie can be so brilliant in one aspect and completely abysmal in the rest. Vengeance of an Assassin has a really excellent choreography on par with The Raid and Ong Bak, but it lacks any logical structure and understanding of reality. The plot is nonsensical and inconceivable, there's really not enough to string together a story here. This film is made for action fans and admittedly there's plenty adrenaline rush to be had here, though majority of the audience will find the lack of basic story to be unappealing.
Story follows a kidnapped princess who is saved by children of special agents, kind of. Screenplay is erratic throughout the entire movie, it doesn't deliver crucial plot points or just simply skims over them. There are literally scenes that are glossed over by people shooting the very next minute. Thailand movies are notorious for this, but at least they still have set-up for character, back story and such.
Vengeance of an Assassin doesn't even cover these basics, it just a few dialogues cobbled together to fill space between the action. Acting is either lackluster or overly enthusiastic. Not to mention there are many plot devices that defies law of nature. It tends to underwhelm the production when a movie pretends basic concept of reality or common sense doesn't apply to them.
Nevertheless, the action is superb. Fight scenes are made with robust motion. The movie has authentic way of combat, using not only Muay Thai, but also acrobat and even ordinary items for maximum damage. It's brutal, unrelenting and will definitely delight action fans. Choreography also includes a couple of continuous shots which resembles the best of John Woo's movie decades ago. There's no shortage of climatic combat when the talking stops, although a few of CGI sequences look rather inorganic.
There was definitely a lot of production value invested in the movie, it's just unfortunate that barely any of it went to screenplay and script.
