Review of The Raid 2 (2014) by Sam D — 03 Aug 2014

The Raid 2 is a daring action achievement and terrific entertainment!

Most of the time, sequels never seem to reach the heights of the original. Not only did this do The Raid: Redemption justice, it did it with much more style and flair than I expected. Iko Uwais cements himself as one of the best martial arts actors around today and I'm definitely a fan.

Rama (Iko Uwais) barely escaped with his life after the events of The Raid: Redemption. The criminal element and corrupt cops he battled in the original strike back hard by going after his family as payback. It becomes painfully clear to Rama that he and his family will never be really be safe until he eliminates the upper upper echelon of the crime syndicate that now wants him dead. To do this, he must infiltrate their ranks by befriending the son of a king pin (Uco played by Arifin Putra) and gain his trust before exacting his revenge.

The story is a bit more ambitious this time around, but is not overly complicated. All of the elements of the original are once again on display. The choreography is again, excellent; the fight choreography of The Raid: Redemption and this sequel are the best I've seen since the IP Man movies. The soundtrack is pulsating and sets the tone well for the action scenes very well. For a 2.5 hour long movie (I was shocked when I saw it was this long at the start), this was very well paced. At no point did it lull or meander and there was enough of story to keep me intrigued. I also enjoyed that the dialogue wasn't horrible (unfortunately that isn't always the case with many action movies) and wasn't over the top.

Iko Uwais (The Raid, The Man from Tai Chi) is once again Rama. He's clearly a really talented martial artist and proves that the original was not a fluke. Unlike most action stars, he actually has a strong on screen presence and is also able to carry an emotionally subtle scene. But what I love about this sequel the most is is how creative and memorable the villains are. I loved Alex Abbad's performance as Bejo! He's the kind of memorable villain you've seen before, but with a few tweaks that make him seem fresh and new. He steals just about every scene he's in and takes this movie to another level in my opinion. Julie Estelle and Very Tri Yulisman (unknown actors to me) shine in some fairly unique action scenes (let's just say they are very creative with a few hammers and a baseball bat).

Like the original, the action is non-stop and looks very believable. There are no clearly visible phantom punches or anything that looks staged. It definitely looks like these guys are actually beating the bleep out of each other! I couldn't have been more entertained. Honestly, the fights so thrilling at times I couldn't help but spontaneously applaud and were so gruesome at times I couldn't help but laugh. If you went into this for action, they made sure you were not going away disappointed; believe me when I say that.

This movie oozes cool. Whether it's the brazen subway battle, the amazingly shot prison yard fight (especially the lead up to it which featured some great camera-work) or the impressive car chases (which reminded of The Matrix: Reloaded a little) there's a lot to love. They were all filmed with such style and flair that I was reminded of Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill movies; kudos to the director Gareth Evans. Evans doesn't over do it with the the artsy slow motion or scene staging, it's just enough to keep it from being cheesy or over used. I will definitely be looking for more of his work (more on that to come).

It's not all perfect however. The drawback of this sequel is that in it's attempt to be be more daring, it does succumb to some of the usual genre pitfalls. The bad guys never seem to have the guns when they really need them (this was brutally obvious a few times) and at times the bad guys attack one at a time, one after the other, etc. When they do have the guns, they seem to miss a lot of point blank shots. But hey, it's an action movie, so none of that is surprising really. But one thing I just couldn't look past was the return of a character who died in the original. I get making that move in different film series, but to bring back a character that already died in the same series without any attempt to alter the character? That's a no go, at least for the sake of continuity. Apparently this is a common thing in Asian cinema, but it's something that's hard to look past as it was a prominent character from the original. Having said that, it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the film, not for a second.

The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2 are setting a new standard for martial arts films. If you're an action film aficionado, be sure to watch this, you won't regret it. There is already a rumored The Raid 3 that will star Tony Jaa along with Iko Uwais. Um, where do pre-order my tickets? As for as I'm concerned, The Raid 3 can't come soon enough!