Too much of everything

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

At the time of its release, MERCURY MAN, Thailand's first foray into the superhero genre was one of the more expensive movies ever made in the country, but it's dismal box office performance there didn't bode well for its producers' hopes that it would "go international" or have the box-office muscle of Sam Raimi's SPIDERMAN, the film it's most obviously been modelled on, right down to the lead character's sinewy-rubbery costume, which can be easily duplicated in a computer for those dazzling flights of fancy across urban landscapes.The film is flawed enough that it probably never stood a chance of cracking the international market anyways. Glossy production values aside--and they're often rare in Thai cinema--there's a weird sense that the whole thing is some kind of thinly-veiled propaganda.After having part of a mystical "Solar Mercury" amulet embedded in his chest, a hot-shot fireman (Vasan Kantha-u) must learn to control his temper (in a country known for silencing dissent, no less, not to mention alienating religious minorities) if he's to defeat not only various hooligans around the city, but also a small band of Muslim extremists led by a dude named "Usama" who bears a rather unfortunate resemblance to Richard Lynch in the Chuck Norris classic INVASION U.S.A.The terrorists need the amulet, paired with it's sister--the "Lunar Mercury"--to aid their plans to attack the literal and symbolic American interests around the country (Helloooo, massive McDonald's & Hard Rock Cafe product placements!!). Interestingly, the film features a little boy with psychic powers who opens the film by demonstrating his ability to stop a stopwatch at will. Funny that they'd need a scene like that...For the money the filmmakers spent (which still wasn't much by American standards), everything looks pretty good, but the computer effects are hobbled on occasion by a clear misunderstanding of the laws of physics on the part of their creators, such as those that would govern the car Mercury Man kicks into a billboard, where it becomes stuck rather than crashing through! Yes, I know it's a fantasy, and I can accept Mercury Man's metal-based powers allowing him to "fly" between metal objects without the aid of machinery or ropes or webs, but billboards can't stop cars! The cast is generally quite dull, but I've come to expect that in Thai cinema. Pretty faces, but not much expression, including the ones Mercury Man's boyish alter ego must suppress for fear of catching on fire, as his crotch nearly does when he cops a few glances at a Penthouse magazine tucked away in his drawer.The action choreography, by Prachya Pinkaew and his ONG BAK/TOM YUM GOONG team, are the main reasons this is watchable, but there's a certain recycled feeling about them now, with only the more expensive costuming and modern-looking locations differentiating them from those seen in the earlier Tony Jaa films and virtually everything else that Pinkaew has touched to date. On top of that, there's one hell of a lot editing going on in these sequences. Every connected blow is followed by an immediate cut to a closeup or a long shot, which tends to make you wonder just how many stunt doubles are being disguised with every splice. Fans of BEAUTIFUL BOXER, the life story of trans-gender Muay Thai boxer Parinya Charoenphon, might enjoy watching her, largely undoubled it would seem, kick the snot out a batch of evildoers in white lab shirts.And the final fight between Mercury Man and the villain's right hand babe, who's absorbed the power of the Lunar Mercury amulet, is worth watching for any number of reasons, notably the latter's transformation into a semi-naked frost warrior.Though undoubtedly intended as an A-list picture in its homeland, and indeed, with its slick visuals and breezy pace, feeling and looking much more like one in comparison to a lot of the sloppily made crap that passes for populist cinema there, MERCURY MAN is nonetheless best viewed with lowered expectations, particularly if you aren't familiar with Thai cinema, otherwise you'll inevitably be tempted to actually compare it to the American superhero films it so brazenly dares you to.

Good live-action superhero movies are worth their weight in gold. (To the aficionado, anyway: to the filmmakers, considerably more than that.) MERCURY MAN isn't bad, though it rarely rises above the level of the first SPIDER-MAN (which boasted some great cgi and some solid performances, but which suffered, too, from some really bad cgi and some lapses in logic that were downright mind-boggling). Unlike Peter Parker, Mercury Man also happens to be (in addition to being a super-powered hero), pretty good with his hands and feet. (One of the more interesting superheroes from days of yore was a character called Wildcat. He dressed all in black, with a cat-like mask. In "real life," he was a former heavyweight boxing champion of the world. It's always more interesting when a hero can rely on some kind of skill other than his super power.) (And, if the foregoing has in any way whetted your appetite, check out the new BRAVE AND THE BOLD series: in one episode, Batman teams up with none other than Wildcat himself.) (And, while I'm on the subject of superheroes, I highly recommend the DVD release of HULK VS. THOR. This happens to be- as far as I know- the first time Thor has been done right since the mid-1960s- in a limited-animation series that was scarcely more than panels taken directly from the comics themselves-, although The Hulk is twice his size.) If you're a die-hard fan of the genre, you could do a whole lot worse than MERCURY MAN.

Who said that you have to be Superman, Batman, or even Spiderman to have a good superhero flick? Mercury Man is a movie made in Thailand that overshot my expectations. The story did start out a little slow, but picks up quickly. A small piece of info about the movie is that there are 2 amulets . One is the Sun amulet, the other is the Moon amulet. Our hero feels he is doing the right thing when he helps a police official. He doesn't know that the official is corrupt and is stabled in the heart with the sun amulet.He acquires these extreme super powers. He kinda looks like Venom with different designs on is body. His suit was made by his tranny brother. Anyway, there is this kid that has the moon amulet in his body and he abuses his powers.One of the reviewers said that the choreography was bad. He must have closed his eyes through the movie, especially the fight that took place in the nightclub. The bad guys build this device that took the heros' powers away from him. They must have forgot that this guy could fight.You would have to see it to believe it. But don't listen to these guys with all of the negativity about the film. I mean can you really believe it took these two guys 2 hours to realize that they didn't like this movie, something must have caught their eye. Anyway check the movie out for yourself, you'll love it or you'll hate it. 8.7/10

I hate giving movies low ratings. Makes me feel like one of those professionals who bash movies. In fact if a movie is bad, I don't write reviews. But I had to write one for this movie.Story was absolutely, needlessly, mind numbingly bad. I guess they couldn't decide on what plot to make the movie on. There's everything in this movie from thugs to terrorists who not only hate thailand but the whole world.The movie had a budget of 60 million baht ($1.6 million), which is quite a lot for their currency. I guess they spend most of the budget on the fx. All the FX redering was very well done considering the budget. Probably the only positive thing in the movie.The director mentioned that the goal of the movie was to appeal to the international movie audience. Well..... FX isn't just enough to appeal to audience. With FX one needs good acting. "Good Acting" this movie does not have. Even if you are watching this movie in thai, you can tell that the actors are quite bad.The movie's crew involved a lot of people from the crew of Ong-Bak and Tom Yum Goom. Ong-Bak was good. Tom Yum Goom sucked but Mercury Man is better than that. Maybe their next movie will be better.