Film Review: The Raid 2

Director: Gareth Evans

It’s hard to find beautifully artistic action movies like The Raid these days. Hollywood action movies today always have been explosive but less consuming as they hardly emphasise the narrative. The first of The Raid trilogy did exactly this, but it’s not difficult to realise why it created a cult following; the nail-biting fight sequences and its brutality that most action movies have never executed before. Its follow up, however, The Raid 2: Berandal ups its game and it definitely delivers more than a normal action movie. It finds its balance between captivating the audience with its character development and narrative and still pleases the fans with even fiercer sequences.

Set two hours after the first film, it opens with an establishing shot of a field where a gang is about to kill a man (I won’t spoil anything for you!) and this already establishes that it’s not just an action film, and more of a crime thriller. Protagonist Rama’s character goes undercover to infiltrate the thugs of Jakarta and uncover the corruption within the police force, and he befriends the boss’s son in prison, Uco, to be a part of the gang. The story itself becomes more complex than the prequel and audience will be hooked focusing on the narrative. What astonish me is that these little known actors have played such an impressive performance, including Iko Uwais as Rama, proving to be more than just a skilled fighter, and goes the same with Yayan Ruhian’s performance as Prakoso, giving such an emotional send-off with his moving character back story, compared to his sadistic ways in the prequel. But hats off to Arifin Putra’s performance as Uco, the boss’s deceitful son who wants to be take control of the business.

When the action sequences come in, you become fixed straight to the scene. The anticipation within the first sequence in the toilets, I already fastened my seatbelt. I mean who knew you can beat up so many prisoners in such little room? The prison yard sequence was gritty and vicious, with arteries sliced and bones shattered, it was full-on madness and it doesn’t stop there. When characters like Hammer Girl and Baseball Bat Man comes in, its violence develops into something almost cartoonish, like Kick-Ass, but it is still creative and jaw dropping. But the highlight of the film is the warehouse sequence; how determined Rama was and how he ploughed through the building, which lead to a ridiculously intense battle between him and The Assassin, which I was pretty sure lasted for more than 15 minutes. My eyes were wide open and mouth open the entire time.

Evans’ direction is what makes this such an artistic film. His creative ways with the camera were interesting; the inventive tracking shot where Rama chases the leader of a branch, Topan and how the camera jumps from one room to another as Topan jumps through the window, and the long takes of the battle between Rama and The Assassin. The cinematography is exuberant and dark at the same time, so much colour of red in most rooms and an apocalyptic tint to the film that makes a gloomy setting. But the choreography of the fight sequences is what makes the film. They were more inventive than the prequel and have their creative ways of killing off each person and can name a few. Let’s list some ingenious deaths shall we? Burning their face with a stove, hitting them in the face with a baseball bat or just by throwing a baseball, shooting them in the face multiple times with a submachine gun, smashing their face to a toilet, the list is endless.

Overall: Better than its predecessor in so many ways. This is more than just an action film, this is a crime thriller with some drama and a lot of innovative, aggressive sequences that some people will absolutely love, and fans of the prequel will be left satisfied, or yet even speechless. 

10/10

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