Wira

This anticipated action flick that could have been the successor to The Raid is ultimately just a better average that, while not offensive, had a lot of things that bothered me. Malaysia isn't Indonesia, Thailand and certainly not South Korea, and the filmmaking differences are very apparent. Acting-wise, the film is pretty bad and sometimes they start speaking English out of nowhere, which I didn't understand, and it only made things worse. The villain is uninteresting (an old geezer) and the story isn’t very engaging, either. Of course these are all things I can overlook in an action movie, but I have my complaints about the action itself. Those who don't have a lot of experience will like the action, those who are more demanding like me will have a problem. Two things bothered me. Firstly the film is absolutely bloodless and it bothered me mainly because everyone uses knives, machetes and katanas, but no one cuts, stabs or kills anyone, which I thought was weird. And the fights themselves, although they have minimal editing and occasionally pull off a nice move or scene, I didn't believe them in most cases. The punches very often don’t land and it feels very mechanical and rehearsed. The main character doesn't really move much (as if he knows where the punch is coming) and it felt more like two people training than fighting, which I personally don't like, but some might find it fine. It gets a bit better in the ending, where Ruhian, the star of both The Raid and John Wick, appears and the final fight was the best scene of the film, but in any other Asian film it would have been mediocre. Malaysia's effort is good, but it lacks the budget and the actors to compete with the masters. Story**, Action***, Humor>No, Violence>No, Entertainment***, Music***, Visual***, Atmosphere***, Suspense**. 5/10. (06/18/2020)