The Raid 2 (18.)
Directed by Gareth Evans.
Starring Iko Uwais, Arifin Putra, Alex Abbad, Tio Pakusodewo Yahan Ruhian and Julie Estelle. 148 mins
The Raid was a marvellous slap in the face to Hollywood complacency: it was like the results of a time and motion study to find the slack and excess in American action films. A small scale, action film from Indonesia written, edited and directed by some Welsh bloke nobody had heard of it seemed to taunt them – you call that Fast and Furious, no this, this is fast and furious.
The Raid saw Evans move from nought to world’s best action movie director in 101 minutes: the Raid 2 is bigger and more ambitious and takes two and half hour to confirm that the boy Evans is the real deal. His feel for action is effortless and he’s always seems to be perfectly in time with the rhythm of his carnage. The odd moments where he’s forcing it or the timing is a bit off really jars. There’s a brief close up of a face being slashed in a climatic fight and it really sticks out because it breaks the flow and it may be the only second or two where he has to patch up a scene, where he didn’t get it perfectly.
Writing five weeks before its release I predicted that by the time it came out a “The Greatest Action Movie ever” quote would have been found for the poster. In the event it was qualified by "one of." I still wouldn’t agree, but I see the point. Something though has been lost. The joy of the first one was that it seemed to be unaware of its brilliance. It was a humble little Saturday night shoot/slash/smack ‘em up that was improbably touched by genius. The second is all about demonstrating its own brilliance.
The first also had the beautiful simplicity and unity of its plot with everything taking place in a single day in a single location, a giant tower block in Jakarta that was overrun by criminals and protected by bent cops. It had this relentless momentum and fury that gave the excessive violence a giddy comic fury. The new one has sprawling plot with the survivor of the first film Rama (Iko Uwais) going undercover in prison to infiltrate a crime family and root out corrupt coppers. Which means that the action is broken up by lots of plot (stupid, illogical plot but plot none the less) and the action pieces now seem much more like set pieces, like numbers in a musical.
And it is insanely violent. So was the first one but the head spitting, flesh ripping, limb snapping brutality here makes the film as gruelling an experience as the most depraved horror show. Because Evans is a whizz with the camera I touchingly assumed he may be a bit of an artist but though the occasional moment shows he can do other things besides action, there no suggestion that he would want to do anything else.
(I guess Evans must now be a bit of star in Malaysia and he seems to have been give the run of the city here. I wonder if the authorities really appreciate the film’s vision of Jakarta being a place where people can casually wander around the streets carrying machetes and hammers without anyone being much bothered.)
The Raid 2 though shows that he does one thing that Hollywood never seems to learn – he saves the best stuff for the finale. The first action sequence is an attempt to better the corridor fight in Oldboy and from there the film seems to be constantly trying to outdo itself and everybody else. It gets quite wearing but although for me 2 is a disappointment, its finale, which goes on for over half an hour starting with a ferocious car chase is breathtakingly good. The film may be a moral sewer but when you arrive, exhausted and sickened at the end of this long and winding path of mangled corpses, the sheer virtuosity will have won you over.
Directed by Gareth Evans.
Starring Iko Uwais, Arifin Putra, Alex Abbad, Tio Pakusodewo Yahan Ruhian and Julie Estelle. 148 mins
The Raid was a marvellous slap in the face to Hollywood complacency: it was like the results of a time and motion study to find the slack and excess in American action films. A small scale, action film from Indonesia written, edited and directed by some Welsh bloke nobody had heard of it seemed to taunt them – you call that Fast and Furious, no this, this is fast and furious.
The Raid saw Evans move from nought to world’s best action movie director in 101 minutes: the Raid 2 is bigger and more ambitious and takes two and half hour to confirm that the boy Evans is the real deal. His feel for action is effortless and he’s always seems to be perfectly in time with the rhythm of his carnage. The odd moments where he’s forcing it or the timing is a bit off really jars. There’s a brief close up of a face being slashed in a climatic fight and it really sticks out because it breaks the flow and it may be the only second or two where he has to patch up a scene, where he didn’t get it perfectly.
Writing five weeks before its release I predicted that by the time it came out a “The Greatest Action Movie ever” quote would have been found for the poster. In the event it was qualified by "one of." I still wouldn’t agree, but I see the point. Something though has been lost. The joy of the first one was that it seemed to be unaware of its brilliance. It was a humble little Saturday night shoot/slash/smack ‘em up that was improbably touched by genius. The second is all about demonstrating its own brilliance.
The first also had the beautiful simplicity and unity of its plot with everything taking place in a single day in a single location, a giant tower block in Jakarta that was overrun by criminals and protected by bent cops. It had this relentless momentum and fury that gave the excessive violence a giddy comic fury. The new one has sprawling plot with the survivor of the first film Rama (Iko Uwais) going undercover in prison to infiltrate a crime family and root out corrupt coppers. Which means that the action is broken up by lots of plot (stupid, illogical plot but plot none the less) and the action pieces now seem much more like set pieces, like numbers in a musical.
And it is insanely violent. So was the first one but the head spitting, flesh ripping, limb snapping brutality here makes the film as gruelling an experience as the most depraved horror show. Because Evans is a whizz with the camera I touchingly assumed he may be a bit of an artist but though the occasional moment shows he can do other things besides action, there no suggestion that he would want to do anything else.
(I guess Evans must now be a bit of star in Malaysia and he seems to have been give the run of the city here. I wonder if the authorities really appreciate the film’s vision of Jakarta being a place where people can casually wander around the streets carrying machetes and hammers without anyone being much bothered.)
The Raid 2 though shows that he does one thing that Hollywood never seems to learn – he saves the best stuff for the finale. The first action sequence is an attempt to better the corridor fight in Oldboy and from there the film seems to be constantly trying to outdo itself and everybody else. It gets quite wearing but although for me 2 is a disappointment, its finale, which goes on for over half an hour starting with a ferocious car chase is breathtakingly good. The film may be a moral sewer but when you arrive, exhausted and sickened at the end of this long and winding path of mangled corpses, the sheer virtuosity will have won you over.
