I open myself up to ridicule with this review. Why? because i am about to make a very broad statement. Now, i am a HUGE martial arts action movie fan. Gunfights are as boring as steamed rice to me, and grow tired of the same Hollywood approach of throwing a pretty boy muscle-clad hero as a lead role and arm him with an arsenal of weaponry. No skill, no dramatic effects, no chance for the viewer to be immersed into each scene.
My broad statement is this: The Raid 2 is the biggest,the best, the most brutal and bloody action/martial arts movie i have ever seen....and I've seen everything from Bruce Lee, JCVD, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Scott Adkins, Micheal Jai White, Tony Jaa etc etc
The Raid 2 effectively takes the strongest and most appealing elements of the original film, the brutal unbridled action/fight sequences, but then magnifies them. There is no walls of confinement, no narrow passages, no limits and boundaries, just the city of Jakarta, which becomes the backdrop to some of the most incredible action sequences you will ever see on film.
The story echoes the complexity and delivery of The Departed, pays homage to Internal Affairs, whilst always remaining interesting and easy to follow, which is a positive, as a movie that goes for almost 150 minutes cant be non stop action. The acting is great on all accounts, but like every martial arts/action film, you wont be reading about Oscar performances.
The fight scenes..THE GLORIOUS fight scenes :) The first hour of the movie is predominantly dialog and back-story, with spot fires of fight scenes. A large scale prison riot is beautifully shot and doesn't take long for the murky, muddy prison yard to have a splash of our favorite color (red). Prior to that is a more claustrophobic scene where Iko fends off 20+ inmates who have realized he has barricaded himself in a toilet cubicle and needs to fight his way out.
I wont go over each grin-inducing scene of hammer smashing, baseball bat hitting, neck slitting, car chasing, bone crushing, head stomping, shotgun blasting carnage, but i will give a special mention to the final fight scene of the movie: The Kitchen scene. Unless Gareth Evans has some tricks up his sleeve for The Raid 3, YOU WILL NOT see a more intense, fast, brutal, entertaining fight scene ever. It is hands-down the greatest moment of martial arts cinema that you will ever see.
If The Raid 1 raised the bar 40 stories high, then The Raid 2 leaves the atmosphere with it.
**********\10 - Completely blown away, rivals I Saw The Devil as one of the greatest foreign movies ever made.
My broad statement is this: The Raid 2 is the biggest,the best, the most brutal and bloody action/martial arts movie i have ever seen....and I've seen everything from Bruce Lee, JCVD, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Scott Adkins, Micheal Jai White, Tony Jaa etc etc
The Raid 2 effectively takes the strongest and most appealing elements of the original film, the brutal unbridled action/fight sequences, but then magnifies them. There is no walls of confinement, no narrow passages, no limits and boundaries, just the city of Jakarta, which becomes the backdrop to some of the most incredible action sequences you will ever see on film.
The story echoes the complexity and delivery of The Departed, pays homage to Internal Affairs, whilst always remaining interesting and easy to follow, which is a positive, as a movie that goes for almost 150 minutes cant be non stop action. The acting is great on all accounts, but like every martial arts/action film, you wont be reading about Oscar performances.
The fight scenes..THE GLORIOUS fight scenes :) The first hour of the movie is predominantly dialog and back-story, with spot fires of fight scenes. A large scale prison riot is beautifully shot and doesn't take long for the murky, muddy prison yard to have a splash of our favorite color (red). Prior to that is a more claustrophobic scene where Iko fends off 20+ inmates who have realized he has barricaded himself in a toilet cubicle and needs to fight his way out.
I wont go over each grin-inducing scene of hammer smashing, baseball bat hitting, neck slitting, car chasing, bone crushing, head stomping, shotgun blasting carnage, but i will give a special mention to the final fight scene of the movie: The Kitchen scene. Unless Gareth Evans has some tricks up his sleeve for The Raid 3, YOU WILL NOT see a more intense, fast, brutal, entertaining fight scene ever. It is hands-down the greatest moment of martial arts cinema that you will ever see.
If The Raid 1 raised the bar 40 stories high, then The Raid 2 leaves the atmosphere with it.
**********\10 - Completely blown away, rivals I Saw The Devil as one of the greatest foreign movies ever made.