Review of The Raid 2 (2014) by Waleed A — 25 Jun 2017

Just wasn't as good as the original. Had some awesome fighting again and some great directing in both the fight and non-fight scenes. and it was visually beautiful. But the story tried to be too complex and just wasn't good. it was almost completely useless to me. there weren't really any characters that stood out like in the first one. the music wasn't as good. I gave it a second chance. it is just way too long and boring. it EASILY could have been 40 minutes shorter, maybe even an hour (2 viewings).

SPOILERS.

Tried to be like the departed with the undercover story and the second undercover revealing who he was before he died, and I called it when he said "we come from the same place." I thought the way it ended was stupid with him saying I'm done . It seemed to have a lot of things and never came into play like the second undercover telling him it would never end and saying that he was stuck there forever, him not trusting his handler, and it was so confusing to have an entirely new character played by the same actor as the main villain who died at the end of the first movie. I kept thinking maybe they were showing something from the past. and that entire story-line was completely irrelevant to the story. they tried to give him a backstory with an ex-wife that won't let him see his son. he was introduced an hour into the movie and ended up dying not too long after. but not before adding like 20 minutes of useless story to the movie.