Review of The Raid 2 (2014) by Ola G — 13 Jun 2015

After the disastrous raid on Tama's apartment building, the rookie SWAT unit member Rama (Iko Uwais) meets with Bunawar, a police officer that was assured honest by his brother Andi. After sending Rama's fellow survivor Bowo to receive medical attention and executing Wahyu, Bunawar invites Rama to join a clandestine anti-corruption task force which seeks to expose police commissioner Reza's backroom dealings with the Bangun and Goto gangs. While Rama initially declines, he agrees to join them after learning of his brother's murder by Bejo and the imminent threat to his family. Rama assaults the son of a politician who opposed Bangun's criminal family, earning imprisonment alongside Bangun's son Uco. Rama, under the alias Yuda, saves the mobster's life during a prison riot. Bangun subsequently hires Yuda when the latter's prison sentence ends two years later. As Yuda, Rama proves his value to the organization and earns the family's trust while rifts grow between him and the unreliable Bunawar, who withholds information from him. Meanwhile, Uco grows increasingly discontented with his father's lack of faith in his abilities and placidity towards the Japanese, desiring to take on a larger role in the mob's operations...

While "The Raid: Redemption" was by far one of the most craziest and violent movie experiences I have had in years, it still had an intriguing storyline with a SWAT team trying to get out of a building filled with criminals. "The Raid 2: Berandal" is not as high octane action driven as the predecessor and maybe that is partly the downside of it. The second one is more character driven, but at the same time a bit more "boring" than the first one in comparison. I personally don´t think that the high-energy plot and over-the-top violence in the second one reaches the heights of the first one. "The Raid 2: Berandal" feels just like an excuse to make another film to ride on the wave of the first one. I felt less interested in this story with Rama going undercover to expose corruption and gangland oppositions. At times it´s confusing with all the characters and you sense a feeling that director Gareth Evans wanted to cram in everything he had in his head. Joey Magidson of the website Awards Circuit wrote that he "appreciate(s) the directing skills on display in The Raid 2, but at a certain point, all of the fighting and killing nearly got to be too much for me. I'm recommending the film, but not in the same way as the last one." He added that while it is "creative enough to be worth a recommendation, it lacks the originality of the first flick" and concluded that "The Raid 2 will delight genre fans, but might not impress to many others." My opinion as well. I reckon that despite there´s some sort of ballet like beauty in the hyper-violence and martial arts brutality we see, I simply can´t condone this sort of extreme violence as in this case we are too far off from being comic like and too close to being realistic. Yes, Gareth Evans has showed us how great he is in creating unique action choreographed sequences with outstanding camera-work, but if the storyline fails the rest makes no sense in my book. And "The Raid 2: Berandal" has a messy and not that of a great storyline. My conclusion is that "The Raid 2: Berandal" is simply not as good as "The Raid: Redemption".