MERANTAU is the first teaming between Welsh director Gareth Evans and Indonesian action star Iko Uwais. It's a lot lower-budgeted than their better known follow-up, THE RAID, but at the same time it has plenty of the blistering, well-choreographed action that made THE RAID such an international smash hit. I found myself loving it, even though the origins of the narrative are quite humble.
It's clear that the thought behind this film was to make an Indonesian version of the Thai smash, WARRIOR KING. Uwais is even made up to look like Tony Jaa (same haircut, etc.) and some of the scenes are too similar for it to be mere coincidence; particularly the bone-breaking fight towards the end and the one-man-enters-building-to-kick-ass set-piece. That's not a problem for me, because WARRIOR KING is one of my all-time favourites and MERANTAU comes close to the same quality in places.
It's not an ideal film, because the beginning and ending are far too slow. The first half hour could easily have been excised while Evans seems unable to end his movie, a bit like Peter Jackson in LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING. The middle section is great fun though and Uwais's fighting ability is breathtaking in places. Sure, the acting is nothing to write home about and the storyline is very slim, but none of this matters when the action's good and trust me, MERANTAU has lots of great martial arts action. I recommend it.
It's clear that the thought behind this film was to make an Indonesian version of the Thai smash, WARRIOR KING. Uwais is even made up to look like Tony Jaa (same haircut, etc.) and some of the scenes are too similar for it to be mere coincidence; particularly the bone-breaking fight towards the end and the one-man-enters-building-to-kick-ass set-piece. That's not a problem for me, because WARRIOR KING is one of my all-time favourites and MERANTAU comes close to the same quality in places.
It's not an ideal film, because the beginning and ending are far too slow. The first half hour could easily have been excised while Evans seems unable to end his movie, a bit like Peter Jackson in LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING. The middle section is great fun though and Uwais's fighting ability is breathtaking in places. Sure, the acting is nothing to write home about and the storyline is very slim, but none of this matters when the action's good and trust me, MERANTAU has lots of great martial arts action. I recommend it.