Mercury Man (2006) User Reviews (11)

Not much to redeem, Thais will never learn...

[destroyerwod · 4/10 · 11 June 2014]

A Thai superhero movie? Sounds weird huh? But why not... After all MIRAGE MAN starring Colombian Martial Artist Marko Zaror was not bad at all, rather interesting despise its lead actor very minimal acting skills.

But when it comes to Thai, it seem they ALWAYS have to include some kind of religious factors into there story, and this is always where they are gonna loose us, the western public. We don't care at all about those. The hero happen to be a fireman... thats enough, we like him already, no need to make him somewhat religious or have a religious side kick... I know that the amulets must come from somewhere, but i was hoping for once of having a Thai movie not including something like that at all. Take Ong Bak, take The Protector, what make them fun is Tony Jaa and the fights, nobody cared for the scenario involving religious artifacts...

When i watch a Thai Movie, its always the problem, the action is usually great but the scenario does not interest me at all. But sadly in this case even the action was not stellar. Its not atrocious, but this is nowhere near close to what you will expect reading "ong bak" and "The protector" on the cover. It seem the only decent martial arts scenes are the ones when the hero is in costume, which i supposed are done by his stunt double... The action scenes of the girls fighting are pretty weak... and when the hero is out of costume he fight terrible also.

But after all its a superhero movie, then how are the special effects, the bad guys, the powers, the costume? Well the power themselves are pretty cool. The black costume ain't bad either, it look a bit in the vein of "Kick Ass" if i can say so don't aspect some Nolan Batsuit, but its decent.

The special effects on the other hand... well in some parts there pretty good, but when they want to overdo, it seem our hero morph into a video game character CGI sequence and it looks TERRIBLE. Super Fake looking. The bad guys, now this one made me wondering. There supposed to be some afghan terrorist, but some of them look Caucasians(??) and the hero and his side kick totally look Thai... The worst part is the leader actually wear eye liner and make up that make him look extremely goofy and the dubbing have him talk with some cheap Arabians accent...when every other character talk normal English. Oh and the dubbing... lol... terrible. I know Americans are not used to dub movies... I'm from Quebec, i watch most of my movies in french dubbing, and we know how to do the job well, but here, it seem some American dudes where just reading the lines and thats it... They even dubbed a guy looking like he is 85 years old with a 40 years old sounding voice....

So in the end what can i say? Well enough action to entertain me, but some of it is good, some of it is bad, the special effects where cool in moments, cheap DTV CGI looking in others, the dubbing horrible, but the part that disappoint the most is the story.

You are never really explain where the amulets come from, the terrorist goal and back story is terrible, and that little boy that seem to have mind control over human and electronic... they never explain where he come from at all... but he become a key part of the story so your like.... WHAT??? So Mercury Man is more or less what Jeremy Jahns would call "You'r not gonna remember it in T-minus 15 minutes"...

Thai filmmakers keep trying, but keep missing . . .

[Coolestmovies · 5/10 · 4 December 2011]

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.

beyond the ABCD grading scale. "H" for Help Them & "K" for Kraptastic

[ohitsjustavi · 4/10 · 5 February 2007]

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.

Not good or bad enough

[CeruIean · 3/10 · 19 May 2012]

I was going into this hoping for a so-bad-its-good type movie, but for the most part it's just plain old bad. There are some of the ridiculous moments I was hoping for, like the horrific CGI superhero rescuing people, random atomic artifacts that give superpowers or blow up, and out-of-left-field plot contrivances, but they are rather sparse in a movie that is essentially Thai Magneto vs. Osama Bin Laden. It drags badly in several places to the point that my friend and I were seriously considering just turning it off, but every time it would drag us back in with a slow motion leap over a random couch or the hero sliding down a rope from the top floor of a burning building on his fire axe. In the end, though, I wouldn't recommend it. If you're looking for a movie to take seriously, this one has too many CGI, plot, and dialogue problems. If you're looking for a fun bad movie, it doesn't have enough of them. It's stranded in that limbo between good and bad that is worse than either. If about an hour of plot dialogue had been cut out of this nearly two hour movie, it would be decent, but as it stands, it's not worth your time. If you're looking for a good bad superhero movie, Condorman or Return of Captain Invincible are better. If you're looking for a good Thai martial arts movie, stick with Tony Jaa. Either way, stay away from this one.

Very bad attempt in making a Thai superhero movie

[chrichtonsworld · 3/10 · 10 June 2007]

Apart from 1 or 2 good action scenes this movie has nothing to offer! I wasn't expecting anything special! But what I did get was far below average! I can't imagine that this movie will appeal to anyone! The biggest problem of this movie is that it takes itself to seriously! They could have done so if they at least delivered on the action front! This movie could have used more humor which would have improved the badly choreographed action scenes immensely! Also what bothered me a lot wasn't the bad acting or the plot and even the bad choreography! It was the inconsistency of the use of superpowers! At one time he is able to fly and suddenly he can't! At one time he is able to use some form of telekinesis and just like that he isn't able to and just keeps on jumping and kicking like a muay Thai fighter! The very few special fx are OK, but nothing you haven't seen before! My guess is that this movie is made for children! But trust me even children would like this movie! Avoid "Mercury Man" at all costs!

hahaha what is this real?

[corybrox · 3/10 · 3 March 2009]

ahhaha mercury man. Well where do I start? I can sum it up with 3 words. Asian Spider Man. This movie was terrible, but i mean you get a group of buddies together to watch it for humor values and its worth it. The fighting is Generic, and uninteresting. The storyline is fantastic, if you are 4 years old. The dubbing is well done. Not. It seems like they took one big take. No retrying. To be honest, imagine playing a very pitiful video game with no continues. Thats what the dubbing was like. The story revolves around something about a moon and sun amulet and if you are to use both of them it would be the power of 1/3rd the atom bomb on Hiroshima. Now, when we're talking about superhero movies, that is not a lot of energy at all. The Tridium in Spider-man 2 was interesting, I could understand that. But i mean the sun and moon amulets, that's just stupid. Somehow some dude thinks he can kill Chan (the main character) by stabbing him with the sun amulet, but this only makes him stronger. Then some girl finds him, (once again the storyline is brilliant work of art) and knows all about its power. Then he goes on a pitiful montage where he turns into a crappy CG animation and jumps on a car of 2 bad guys trying to escape from the police in a car. He also breaks a up a gang fight. That part was very funny.

Finally the movie comes to its climax. A girl he was fighting the whole movie gets injected with the moon amulet, and has the powers of freezing. stupid, i know. But the coolest part of the movie is where he gets frozen in some water, and explodes out of it, and freaking holds his knees up in the air like some sort of rollerblading grab trick, and lands down on the girls face, who explodes from it. LULZ filled my mom's basement as we all laughed with constant arrays of confused looks. That, made the movie worth it.

But I mean, this movie does contend with how bad Spider-man 3 was.

The super hero elements are not done well but most of the hand to hand combat scenes are entertaining.

[kevin_robbins · 4/10 · 4 May 2022]

Mercury Man (2006) is a Thai movie I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a fireman who comes into contact with a strange substance while putting out a fire. He transforms into a super hero and finds himself fighting crime as a vigilante when he isn't fighting fires...

This movie is directed by Bhandit Thongdee (The Unborn) and stars Libby Brien (Don't Close Your Blinds), Philip Hersh (Red Cliff), Metinee Kingpayome (Province 77) and Anon Saisangcharn (The Second Site).

The best part of this movie are the women fight scene, particularly at the beginning and end. The dialogue and acting is terrible. The special effects are pretty crazy and many scenes feel like you're watching a bad Spider-Man movie. The super hero elements are not done well but most of the hand to hand combat scenes are entertaining.

Overall this is a below average addition to the action genre that I would score a 4/10 and recommend skipping.

On par with Spider-man...

[poe426 · 7/10 · 1 March 2009]

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.

A Good Superhero movie, that's not made in America!!

[Masta_Ruthless · 8/10 · 15 December 2007]

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

Best superhero movie of all-time

[heroaathi · 10/10 · 21 February 2022]

This film is the best superhero film ever I've seen... it's even far ahead of the dark knight (lmao)...the director's vision is much powerful than any American director...he made a movie that even Christopher Nolan can't do(lol)...my rating for this extraordinary film is 100/10.

Mercury Man from the Charlton ('60's) Comic Book series...

[t-line · 1 December 2016]

Good basic story with obvious differences if made in America. Improved "Production Value" would have helped the distribution, worldwide!

Note: The Charlton Comic Book Character "Mercury Man" and all the characters of the Mercury Man Adventures in the comics of the early '60's is now owned, copyrights and Trademarked by Producer, Tommy G Warren & Spiderwood Franchise!

Development plans are in the works to publish a new and up-dated Comic Book, then go into animation and live action productions for TV and possibly Motion Pictures.

Mercury Man and his Robotic friend, "Zoom" are from a far away Galaxy of Mercury and was forced to earth when their space craft malfunctioned after being hit by a Meteorite. He has taken on a human Comic friend, Dr. Erika Penn.