The Raid 2

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)

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)

(49th KVIFF) The atmosphere in the big theatre was unique, but the sequel of The Raid was a big disappointment for me, mainly because it’s a totally different genre than the first one, which was basically a horror survival. Here Evans tries to tell some kind of intricate Mafia drama with a complex story, but he is not quite successful at it: the motivations are lost, the plan as a whole is unclear and, mostly, it’s terribly boring overall. The moment they start kicking the living shit out of each other, though, it’s nice to watch. The choreography of the fights is amazing, but they don’t make much sense from a narrative standpoint. The last hour, when the characters finally have said everything they wanted to say, it’s fun, but the bad aftertaste of the gruelling ninety minutes that preceded it is impossible to forget. Evans should come back down to earth. (07/12/2014)

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)

The first film was the work of an excellent choreographer, part two an excellent director. The first film is a test reel for this heavy stuff. Sure, it has a simpler structure and thus a seemingly stronger push, but where Evans hit the accelerator pedal to floor the after a few minutes (and monotonously hummed after a few minutes), he demonstrates in part two the precise revving of the machine. At the end it gets to a speed where I say quite responsibly: I have not seen anything better, more pampered, more of a catalyst and more brutal in an action film. Kinetic crap that only the third Bourne film can compete with. Evans also turns out to be a good narrator, if not a screenwriter - he works well with the acting material (the return of the man-macaque !!!), delicately pulls the atmosphere of corpse neon sets even in quiet passages and manages to squeeze more from the main character than an elbow harvester. Despite the rather murderous runtime and the very transparent plot, it holds tight and does not let go. The film has very simple but brutally effective emotions under an incredibly badass aesthetic surface. The film hooked me so much that I experienced the kitchen scene with Rama (together and deliciously) physically - for me, it's A Space Odyssey of fight scenes. The Raid 2 it is not just a level plaything, but rather a monstrous and enchanting world, something similar to what Refn tried to do in Only God Forgives. This is a major genre event for me, compared to which the competition is just shaking with digital and wired shame. [95%] (07/29/2014)

The Raid 2 is for contact action movies what Heat is for he crime movies, what The Dark Knight is for comic book movies, what Once Upon a Time in the West is for westerns and what The Shining is for horror movies. Basically, a genre movie that breaks down the boundaries of this “ignoble" movie genre. It is the plot that’s the most surprising about part two. Yes, really, the plot, something that last time didn’t even figure as essential stuffing, simply because it chose to be nonexistent. This time we have a plot good enough to stand alone even without all that neat action stuff. This time it is a broad uncompromising dirty Hong Kong-style gangster movie that reminds you of Internal Affairs etc. and where the motivations and emotions make sense. In any case, most viewers will just be watching it for the action scenes anyway. And the pleasing thing about it is that even though the choreography was extremely ambitious (and very gory) offering incredible crowd scenes as well as extreme “face to face" fight scenes, it really hurts (the characters and the viewer; especially the final fight scene in the spotlessly white kitchen) and it’s made without any fancy stuff; no tough-guy lines or hyperbole, no shaking camera hand in hand with machinegun editing to cover imperfections and punches that missed, no wires and obvious CGI, but everything nice and clear using long (really long) takes. So, while the rather monotonous part one contained quite a few scenes that were worth watching more than once, here the whole two-and-a-half hour movie is worth your while to watch more than once. And with a movie where everybody’s hitting everybody else all the time, that is the best possible recommendation. (06/21/2014)

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)

It tries to be more epic, visually polished, and technically lavish with better action scenes than the first film. The action is indeed slightly better, but I still have a feeling that the classic arcade mode was more attractive for this subgenre. The pace is ideal and very enjoyable, and each step up meant better and better villains until the finale. Plus, there’s no need to deal with these or those characters and their motivations. Here, there is a plethora of everything, although the essence is still the same, so in the same trivial story, there is only more chaos and confusion, which spoils the indescribably perfect action scenes. It has a bit of Michael Mann's neon lights, a bit of Michael Bay's cinematography and sound editing, and a touch of Ridley Scott's visual poetry, and Quentin Tarantino (especially the silent scenes with snow, hammers, etc.) – thumbs up for all of this, but I would only watch it again for the action. (06/22/2014)

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)

Let's face it, we haven’t had such a monstrously entertaining, straightforward and at the same time creatively constructed action flick for a very long time, and it would be a big mistake to denigrate its quality just because it fails badly in a number of major or minor story details. But there are. On the one hand, we have the cookie-cutter and predictable characters that seem downright unrealistic (the good-hearted and brave hero, the cold and rational big boss and his strong-willed and impulsive nephew, the corrupt cop, etc. ), and then there’s also the incomprehensible aversion of all of them to firearms, which would have ended the story at around the 60th minute (but we would have missed a lot, so I forgive that). Not to mention that, due to the sometimes overly polished stylization, even the basic emotions that the subplot with the abandoned family, for example, tries to convey don't really work – by far the most emotional moment is the execution of the faithful "cleaner", which is brilliantly edited and scored. Otherwise, leaving aside the fact that the ideal of an action detective story for me is the diametrically opposed and realistic Fierce Duel, I have nothing to complain about. The Raid 2 does not require you to think, only to have a keen eye, keen ears and 150 minutes of excess time, which in this case even a person who falls asleep while skydiving would have no problem getting through. And I want more! 85% (06/28/2014)

Ok, the fight sequences here are some of the best I've ever seen. The choreography of the fights is unique and it is worth noting that The Raid 2 is a really violent, even brutal film (not for those with weak nerves). At the same time, it is very serious and does not contain a single attempt at a joke - the talented and capable director apparently tried to take his film to the next level and make it more serious and mature, but he would need a better and more sophisticated screenplay for that. In this way, The Raid 2 is somewhere halfway between an entertaining B movie action film and an ambitious gangster-crime drama. It does a much better job with the former. Some of the dialogue scenes even tend to bore (150 minutes is really a bit too much). But it is definitely a strong, bold and uncompromising guarantee of a unique experience. (06/30/2014)

Yes, please. While it’s embarrassing for me to give credit to all the hysterical barkers, still the second Raid in the context of the current offering, where you go to the cinema to see genre films because of a few attractions and overlook the obligatory cotton fluff, is actually an attraction all by itself even at a respectable 150 minutes flat. This is helped in no small part by that exoticism, which, in a combo with a taciturn hero whose only memorable means of expression tends to splash copious amounts of hemoglobin around the room, makes any devoted melding with the character impossible. As a Westerner, Evans is mindful of this, which is a huge asset; for any who doubt that, let the end credits be the key, where the battle insignia of their characters appear alongside the actors' names. As a result, The Raid 2 is the first film since the Matrix trilogy where a number of familiar contact scenes are set in a relatively functional context. Otherwise, the film has incredible balls; the kind of stuff that happens here will maximally remind people of the contemporary French cinema of extremes. (06/22/2014)

Compared to the first one, this is a lot more ambitious narratively and surprisingly it works well. The attempt to build a simple mythology is actually quite appealing and fills in most of the quieter non-violent passages imaginatively. A great example of a repeat viewing film where you'll be mesmerized every time by the flawless fight choreography, which you won't really find elsewhere. (05/24/2020)