The set-up of the movie is very slow. The audience is not introduced to the new fighting sensation JeeJa Yanin until twenty minutes in the movie, where she is catching balls (literally) and fruits that her chubby best friend throws at her. CGI fruit and balls helped her a lot on that scene to impress upon a crowd that she has fast reflexes, and then a young punk throws a knife at her. We are finally introduced to her kicks and punches in a brief altercation. This was the twenty-minute mark. If you are a patient viewer, you would have to sit through the story about a criminal boss' hench-woman and criminal boss' associate and their love for each other. The criminal boss finds out and goes bat-crazy, shooting his own foot. The man and woman are on the run, and the woman says she's pregnant. The man leaves her and the mother is all alone taking care of her deaf child. The criminal boss returns with his drag-queen goons and cuts off one of the mother's fingers as the deaf child watches and cries. Then the scene cuts to the deaf girl, we see in a montage that she is interested in Thai fighters in front of her house, kung fu movies, her chubby friend, mom, and of course chocolate. Her kryptonite is flies, she really hates flies.

The action scenes are all right, starting with the first action sequence in the ice factory where she mimics Bruce Lee but thinks about Tony Jaa from "Ong-Bak". I was a little confused by that scene--shouldn't she have thought about Bruce Lee instead? In that scene ice is thrown at her, and she dodges it left and right. The second fight is in the warehouse where she fights atop crates and wooden platforms are thrown at her. The next action scene is in the shady butcher shop where the opponents are strapped with butcher knives and again the knives are thrown at her as she dodges them left and right. The last and final action scenes are on top of a roof where she fights thug girls that look like the fly girls from the show "In Living Color". Then the fight scene in the restaurant where she fights people with swords and a man with glasses that is on crack, I suppose. The most exciting out of all the fights is the one on top of billboards and restaurant signs--it was good and enjoyable.

The major problems of the movie were the lack of character development. I personally could not recognize any of the characters in the movie; they were lacking heart or any emotional impact. The story was a major problem too. There were a lot of parts that could of been cut out, like the beginning and some of the emotional parts. Another major problem was the action: there are three action scenes that look the same but in different locations--one in the butcher shop, second the warehouse, and third the ice factory. These action scenes were all the same with the same bad guys trying to attack JeeJa Yanin. The bad guys of the movie were a major problem as well. JeeJa Yanin fights a lot of people in the movie, but none of her opponents were really worthy, which lacks any danger for Miss Yanin. This is supposed to be a martial arts movie, we need a worthy opponent for our hero. If there are no good matches in a kung fu film, then it lacks excitement for the viewer. JeeJa Yanin's character is invincible in the movie, she is like a superhero and her kryptonite is flies. If this was supposed to be a superhero film, the writers should have established that. "Chocolate" is not a superhero film, it's about a deaf girl that fights and never gets hurts except when there are outtakes. There are a lot of martial arts films out there with a hero fighting off an opponent that is worthy to fight with. In this movie our main villain shoots himself in the foot and is surrounded by a group of drag-queen goons--maybe he should have read the guidelines on being a villain and stopped running away from a deaf girl.

"Chocolate" is not a five star masterpiece. We are missing the intense and thrilling action scenes, plus a decent story to follow. The character development is also missing. "Chocolate" is not a zero star movie, it does have some fun for the viewer. I am giving the film two and half stars even though it has three action scenes that look the same and henchmen that are no match for JeeJa Yanin. I did like the fight on top of the billboards, it was creative and original. There was a scene I enjoyed, in the butcher shop, where a man throws a knife at our hero but it bounces of a springy fence and strikes him on the shoulder. To me that's priceless entertainment.