The Raid

[Chux]

Just like it was supposed to be for the previous Raid. Maybe Myk could have another girl alone in the hotel room while you all see it and still not make any moves.

[bbobb]

I would expect no less from Myk.

[Chux]

Oh man, maybe PAX-E movie?

What I was trying to say is that we tried to have another PAX-E movie, but nobody went.

[aren]

Holy shit holy shit HOLY SHIT go see it now. Leave whatever city you leave in and drive as far as you have to, but go see this now.

Sooooooo much awesomeness, wow. No idea how I'm going to sleep.

[Dolemite]

The Raid 2 is a great movie, to be sure. However, I found the first one to be a slightly more exhilarating experience, personally. To me, the sequel really didn't get like that until the last 30-45 minutes or so of the movie; once the Rama/Hammer Girl/Baseball Bat Man fight starts, the flick really goes into overdrive and gets pretty crazy.

First of all, there are TONS of fight scenes in the movie, and they're all really good. The plot is paced well enough that it doesn't make you wait too long between fight scenes, and taking the action out of the high-rise building really keeps things fresh. The cinematography is pure art in parts, and the acting is pretty good...at least, as far as I can tell, since everyone is speaking Indonesian and Japanese. Most of the new characters are cool as well, and the blood/violence level is actually kicked UP a few dozen notches from the first movie, if that was possible. Brutal ain't the word.

But unfortunately, some of my previous fears held true...adding additional story and tons of characters to The Raid 2 really only served to take away some of what made the original so damn effective as a pure, unbridled action movie; breakneck intensity and non-stop action, with a bare-bones story that served to move things along while at the same time not bogging things down. While I don't mind the idea of a more in-depth story line, the one presented in R2 was perhaps one of the least original ever- the ol' "guy goes undercover into the mob by going to jail and befriending the mob boss' son after demonstrating his fighting abilities to him in a prison brawl and saving his life" kinda deal. Still, not the end of the world - there are tons of action movies with derivative scripts - and for the most part, it's conveyed pretty decently here, although the glut of new characters tends to make the proceedings a tad convoluted until the end, where things are tied up rather well. But overall, the story is told in an in-depth way that doesn't really do it any favors because, at its core, it's not very interesting; for the most part, you've just waiting for the talking to end so you can watch the next fight.

Another issue I had with The Raid 2 were the majority of the early action scenes, which almost all for the most part involved variations of one man fighting entire gangs of people in wide-open spaces. While these fights were good, the usual action movie flaw reared its ugly head in the form of gang members who politely take turns attacking the hero, one-by-one. Awfully nice of them to wait until he had dispatched the guy he was fighting before having a go at him, I must say, but it really killed the realism of it. There were similar fights in the first movie, but since that flick took place in enclosed hallways for the most part, having the hero fight mostly one guy at a time worked better simply because of the lack of space. However, I do recall Rama fighting multiple guys at once - the machete fight comes to mind (he fought 4-5 guys at once with some very complex choreography), and the two-on-one final fight with Mad Dog as well, and there's precious little of that in R2; there's just fight after fight where one person fights gangs of killers, one at a time.

However, like I said, things get better as the film goes along, and the last third or so just goes balls-out berserk starting with Rama vs. Hammer Girl and Baseball Bat Man (WOW, that was good), and then goes on to a fucking absolutely EPIC fight with Rama in a kitchen with some dude with knives. If the whole movie was like the end, it would have been the greatest action film ever made, easily. These scenes got my heart pumping like most of the original Raid did for nearly its entire length.

Speaking of Hammer Girl, she's awesome...it's just too bad she's barely in the movie (the promotion material would lead you to believe she's one of the stars). Mad Dog is back, playing a different character, but while he's still amazing he's not in the movie much, either.

The dude who plays Rama still brings the goods, although his character really seems played for a chump by the detective he reports to while undercover. By the end of the movie you really wonder why the fuck he's even bothering continuing with the assignment. The man kicks much ass, however.

The Raid 2 would have been better if The Raid 1 didn't exist, and if the fucking media hype train wasn't on full ultra-dick slurping mode, building expectations to unobtainable levels. No, it's not the greatest action movie ever made, but it is a damn good one; however, I still contend that the first Raid is the best action movie I've seen in the past ten years. Sometimes less IS more.

[Gondolin]

I'm late to the party, but...

I agree with most of what's been said by Dolemite. Berandal is a solid / above-average gore-fu flick that anyone who considers him- or herself a fan of action needs to see. For me, The Raid: Redemption (Mike Shinoda version) is still king, followed by Ong-Bak. The Raid 2 ranks somewhere after that. The reasons are simple: Other than the movie feeling a bit overlong, the action gets a scoch hard to see at times. I don't remember that ever being the case in the first movie. It's no surprise, then, that my favorite sequence in the new film is when we first get to see the bat guy do his thing. Not only was it choreographed and filmed brilliantly (and sans shaky camera), but that SOUND! The aluminum bat hitting flesh and bone made a noise that was truly cringe-worthy.

Aside from that, I don't have much else to add. I just hope Gareth Evans is able to continue making his art. I know I at least did my part and supported the movie twice.

[Dolemite]

Yeah, dat bat. Ow. The part where he killed a dude with a baseball was kinda stupid, but whenever he was wailing with that bat of his? Painful.

And yeah, I agree that the camerawork was a tad more shaky this time around. Not horrifically so, but I do recall the action in the first Raid being a bit more clear to see. That's a minor complaint, however.

And yeah, Ong-Bak remains a great flick. It's a shame that, if you've seen the trailer for Tony Jas's new upcoming film, it appears that he's totally lost his touch now.

[Gondolin]

Yeah, his superhuman baseball-hitting skills were pretty dumb, but I just figured Evans was going for a more comic book/anime feel with him than a realistic one. I felt the same way about the hammer girl.

I'm definitely becoming a whiny cunt in my old age when it comes to shaky action scenes. I've been complaining about them for years, but it's gotten to the point where I can barely tolerate it anymore. I think it's because I've been spoiled by stuff like Children of Men. But, yeah, TR2 rarely had any moments where it was so bad that it crippled a scene for me.

Bummer about Tony Jaa. The dude's as talented as the day is long, but, like the Wachowski siblings, he apparently blew his load early and hasn't been able to duplicate what he did in Ong-Bak.