Review of The Raid (2012) by Bradysmith — 07 Aug 2013

Despite some brilliantly propulsive action sequences The Raid: Redemption is too threadbare and obvious to truly work as a whole. It's screenplay is so deprived of character, plot, emotion, and logic that it becomes pointless.

The basic premise of a raid on a labyrinth building full of gangsters could have been made into a crazy, scary, and tension filled ride, but the apartment complex looks almost exactly the same on every floor, and the main character has about as much vulnerability as the hulk.

It works fine as a showcase for some incredibly kinetic martial arts showdowns... for a while. It just becomes so repetitive and sadistically gory that by the end you feel like it was more of a pro wrestling special (if you think they're real you need help) than an actual movie.

Every cop is somehow a master at hand to hand combat, and no one wants to pick up any of the machine guns lying around because, squeezing a trigger, that's like ordering take-out." It throws logic out the window purposefully, because otherwise there couldn't be non-stop fighting.

I must admit that it's all choreographed amazingly, and can be very exciting at times, but in the end it just feels kinda... stupid. A movie made of nothing but action is just too empty in my opinion.