Welcome Back!
I admit it's been a long while since I posted anything, I'm sorry, I've been a busy body lately. That's not much of an excuse, I'll try to update more.
Anyway I just walked out of The Raid 2, If anyone knows me, you'll know I absolutely loved the first Raid in 2012.
I'll most likely have a few spoilers in here, so if you're going to gripe about spoilers, don't bother reading until you see it.
Anyway, Review Time!
Pros:
How can I start this review without mentioning the Action? The first one was just loaded with action from start to finish, and this definitely delivered a hell of a lot of good amount of action. The Different action scenes all felt different and unique from each other. I cannot say enough how much I loved the action.
The Choreography in the scenes felt flawless and fluid. I loved the fight scene between Baseball Bat Boy and Hammer Girl. (holy Crap, an interesting female character for once!) that scene was some of the coolest prop combat I've seen. The intricate moves of the Hammer missing Rama and hitting the bat. and the odd twists and turns in that fight. Then the final battle with the assassin was just astounding. the Slicing and dicing made the Mad Dog fight from the first look like child's play.
The Chase scene was very well made, Rama and his fight in one car and Eka taking out the others, it flowed very well and was riveting all the way through. I loved the camera work and how the camera somehow stayed moving all the way through it.
Moving on from The fights I have to hand it to the relatively unknown director. Gareth Evans is a brilliant craftman. He can weave together a really difficult to follow story and make it enticing. (to me, my dad thinks it's convoluted. but he also can't remember who's who, so, he might just not remember the story either) Evans is a great action director, and I really hope he doesn't get sucked into hollywood and lose the edge he has.
Iko Uwais was very good as Rama. It felt like he did less int his one than the first, but he got to have more acting than just pure fighting.
And finally, I have to give a shout out to Hammer Girl, You're kinda awesome, and I like you.
Cons:
No movie's perfect, and unfortunately Raid 2 has a couple big flaws. the first is the overly complicated story.
But, wait, I just said it was a well written story.
I did, and it is. but the first Raid was brilliant for it's very simplistic plot, this one decided to go the completely different direction. it went the overly complex way instead. The plot was very tough to follow. Mostly because of the odd structure of the Indonesian Language and the subtitles feeling a bit off. not to mention the fact that all of the names were very similar. Rama, Tama, Bejo, Uco, Eka, Bunawar, Prakoso, Bangun. I mean, i got them eventually they just all blend together in the beginning. Also all of their motivations were tough to pinpoint. eventually I worked them all out, but it took me quite a while.
The other issue was the Pacing. I loved the pacing in the first, nonstop action from start to finish, but the sequel has a whole lot of downtime. and a lot of scenes that I thought felt unneeded, especially the scenes with Prakoso (same actor as Maddog from the first) He felt like the director wanted to give him a sadsap story just to make us care at his demise, but it ended up feeling a bit forced and unneeded.
Final Notes:
I'll warn you, if you are squeamish about gore, this movie is not for you. there are tons and tons of brutal kills, from a guy getting a baseball bat lodged in his face to a man getting his head blown off or a guy getting his jaw ripped off. it's an extremely brutal movie, but take your friends and have a good time.
I really did like this movie, it's not as well contained as the first movie, but after writing this review I've really grown to love the movie. It's Brutal, bloody and brilliant.
FINAL VERDICT: 92
Long and iffy pacing, but amazing fights and interesting story.
So now to watch the first raid and perhaps do a Retro Review....Perhaps?
I admit it's been a long while since I posted anything, I'm sorry, I've been a busy body lately. That's not much of an excuse, I'll try to update more.
Anyway I just walked out of The Raid 2, If anyone knows me, you'll know I absolutely loved the first Raid in 2012.
I'll most likely have a few spoilers in here, so if you're going to gripe about spoilers, don't bother reading until you see it.
Anyway, Review Time!
Movie Review: The Raid 2
How can I start this review without mentioning the Action? The first one was just loaded with action from start to finish, and this definitely delivered a hell of a lot of good amount of action. The Different action scenes all felt different and unique from each other. I cannot say enough how much I loved the action.
The Choreography in the scenes felt flawless and fluid. I loved the fight scene between Baseball Bat Boy and Hammer Girl. (holy Crap, an interesting female character for once!) that scene was some of the coolest prop combat I've seen. The intricate moves of the Hammer missing Rama and hitting the bat. and the odd twists and turns in that fight. Then the final battle with the assassin was just astounding. the Slicing and dicing made the Mad Dog fight from the first look like child's play.
The Chase scene was very well made, Rama and his fight in one car and Eka taking out the others, it flowed very well and was riveting all the way through. I loved the camera work and how the camera somehow stayed moving all the way through it.
Moving on from The fights I have to hand it to the relatively unknown director. Gareth Evans is a brilliant craftman. He can weave together a really difficult to follow story and make it enticing. (to me, my dad thinks it's convoluted. but he also can't remember who's who, so, he might just not remember the story either) Evans is a great action director, and I really hope he doesn't get sucked into hollywood and lose the edge he has.
Iko Uwais was very good as Rama. It felt like he did less int his one than the first, but he got to have more acting than just pure fighting.
And finally, I have to give a shout out to Hammer Girl, You're kinda awesome, and I like you.
Cons:
No movie's perfect, and unfortunately Raid 2 has a couple big flaws. the first is the overly complicated story.
But, wait, I just said it was a well written story.
I did, and it is. but the first Raid was brilliant for it's very simplistic plot, this one decided to go the completely different direction. it went the overly complex way instead. The plot was very tough to follow. Mostly because of the odd structure of the Indonesian Language and the subtitles feeling a bit off. not to mention the fact that all of the names were very similar. Rama, Tama, Bejo, Uco, Eka, Bunawar, Prakoso, Bangun. I mean, i got them eventually they just all blend together in the beginning. Also all of their motivations were tough to pinpoint. eventually I worked them all out, but it took me quite a while.
The other issue was the Pacing. I loved the pacing in the first, nonstop action from start to finish, but the sequel has a whole lot of downtime. and a lot of scenes that I thought felt unneeded, especially the scenes with Prakoso (same actor as Maddog from the first) He felt like the director wanted to give him a sadsap story just to make us care at his demise, but it ended up feeling a bit forced and unneeded.
Final Notes:
I'll warn you, if you are squeamish about gore, this movie is not for you. there are tons and tons of brutal kills, from a guy getting a baseball bat lodged in his face to a man getting his head blown off or a guy getting his jaw ripped off. it's an extremely brutal movie, but take your friends and have a good time.
I really did like this movie, it's not as well contained as the first movie, but after writing this review I've really grown to love the movie. It's Brutal, bloody and brilliant.
FINAL VERDICT: 92
Long and iffy pacing, but amazing fights and interesting story.
So now to watch the first raid and perhaps do a Retro Review....Perhaps?
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