Review of The Raid 2 (2014) by John A — 03 Feb 2015

The Raid 2, is a thrill ride of a sequel which once again showcases the deadly indonesian martial art of Pencak Silat. This time round the film focuses on Rama (Iko Uwais), as he goes undercover to take down both crooked cops, and the criminal gangs of the underworld. This film features great fight choreography, a terrific pace and some great performances in a superbly crafted crime thriller.

Following Merantau, director Gareth Evans and his producers began to work on a project called Berandal (which is Indonesian for "thugs"), which was intended to star Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian, and Donny Alamsyah. The project proved to be more complex and time consuming than they had anticipated. After a year and a half, Evans and the producers found themselves with insufficient funds to produce Berandal, so they changed to a simpler, but different story with a smaller budget. They called the project Serbuan Maut (The Raid), which led to the creation of the first film. Evans considered the idea of creating a link between it and the initial project, Berandal. Due to The Raid's success this was done and Berandal officially became The Raid 2.