The Raid 2

Great fights were given a well-written story which, despite its immense length, isn’t boring for a minute. Also Iko Uwais isn’t the ultimate crusher and doesn’t win every fight. Crowd fights alternate with shootouts and one-on-one fist fights. Evans has hammers, machetes, aluminum baseball bats, broom handles up his sleeve and pulls them out with the best action - and I mean at least one level better than in part one. Harder and heavier. If it’s at all possible. (06/27/2014)

If Gareth Evans controlled the characters and dialogues as skillfully as Andy Lau did in Infernal Affairs, The Raid 2 would have been the best action movie ever, even better than the best of John Woo in the fight scenes. But it’s too long, with too many characters and an overly complicated plot. For this to be a pureblood action movie, there are too many dialogue scenes that fill two-thirds of the film and try to build a mega-epic drama. Visually, however, it is perfect – especially the interiors are refined in the manner of Kubrick. A great aesthetic experience on the big screen at Karlovy Vary’s Thermal Hotel. (07/11/2014)

There is power in simplicity, or was – last time. The second time around, I don't think Gareth Evans did as well, despite the commendable fact that he went about it in many ways completely differently and didn't want to repeat himself. I wouldn't mind that The Raid 2 is no longer an action flick, but something more, what bothered me the most was that while in the first film all the action was a logical part of the story, so much so that you could that it was actually the story, this time it was as if the unnecessarily grandiose story served only to allow some action to happen, and it didn't matter if it made sense or not. It was just too much, it was overwrought and unnecessarily complicated, until I wondered why on earth everyone didn't shoot each other and had to keep hitting and hitting each other, and sometimes in quite bizarre ways (the girl with the hammers, I didn't understand). The closer it got to the end, the less it interested me. (01/03/2023)

Gareth Evans is an incredible talent. His ability to compose shots in calm passages with pedantic precision reminded me of the first Kill Bill, where Tarantino also fondled every image. On the other hand, he always manages to spice up action scenes with some unexpected visual flourish and breathtaking vivacity, with choreography that is unrivalled today. Indonesian boys, hats off to you! It's a pity that the film as a whole is a mere wait for each excellent action sequence and the plot in between is nothing but necessary filler that fails to engage the viewer (at least in my case). Still, I applaud Evans and I can't imagine what this guy will throw at us in the future. Hell, he's not even thirty yet! It’s truly admirable how much skill he has despite his youth. (07/19/2014)

The first film, minus its only flaw (the absence of a plot), equals this. Admittedly, I hesitate to wonder if delivering the plot had to mean a two-and-a-half-hour epic, but overall it works great. The last hour is something that goes against everything I have experienced in cinema so far. The physicality of this spectacle goes beyond the horizons of the common imagination, and Evans has a notch in the form of the best subgenre spectacle. The several times that I involuntarily said "Holy crap!" sum up all the superlatives I can think of in connection with this. (07/25/2015)