Review of The Raid (2012) by Kai82 — 17 Feb 2022

An intense and well choreographed action movie that is strong from start to finish. Also pretty brutal and a no nonsense approach. The set up is excellent and wasted no time. A SWAT team with 20 members is on a raid to capture the legendary crime lord Tama who is feared, worshiped and ruthless.

He lives in an apartment block guarded with his loyal men and rented rooms for others under his protection. The plan is not to go in guns blazing as it is to risky and will surly backfire. They will silently go in to capture room for room from floor to floor.

The further they get without being detected the better their chances get. For the new officer Rama it is his first mayor assignment. Here I stop to avoid spoilers. For the story I am impressed as they do more than needed for an action movie and everything works well.

All twists are fully believable, enhance the story and in combination with the fitting characters we get a really enjoyable experience. I have to praise the whole cast. Lets start wit the main actor Iko Uwais as Rama.

He is a great protagonist and his struggles make him even more believable aka better. He easily won me over and I want to see more from him. Ray Sahetapy as Tama is frightening good. His introduction scene alone I would use in film school on how to set up a bad guy.

It dropped our jars and made him as menacing as scary. Yayan Ruhian as Mad Dog is also one of my favorites. He is always shorter and smaller than his enemies and this could be a miss in other movies. But by god he is a menacing fighter you have to take 100% serious.

You never want to get on his bad side. An amazing performance and I want to see more. The rest also deliver. Donny Alamsyah as Andi is more than it seems and works great. Joe Taslim as Jake the leader of the SWAT nails his role and each scene with him is a stregth.

Special praise to I think Alfredius Godfred as the machete wielding criminal. His eyes and gaze alone deliver more than others do with words. He is so scary. I see no flaws in the cast and say this is a masterpiece in this regard.

I must mention the well choreographed martial arts and action scenes. I only discovered this movie through praise from a YouTube channel which ranked it in the top well choreographed modern martial arts movies.

It is fully deserved as the fights are intense, awesome to watch and the poster child for the phrase “You can feel the impact”. A must see for me. Of cause I must also mention that it is brutal and often we gasped during the movie.

The sets of the building fully give the derelict feeling and round up the experience. All in all this was a pleasant surprise and I give a 10/10 because it hits all the right spots for action, characters, martial arts and gives a satisfying ending.