Review of The Raid 2 (2014) by Jakeri C — 29 May 2018

The setup is a little haphazard and hard to follow if you haven't seen the original, but the execution is absolutely glorious. Despite the meandering and unnecessarily thick plot, this is the best action movie ever made.

The Raid 2 follows the continuing story of Rama, a now undercover cop tasked with taking down corrupt police officials within the seedy underbelly of Jakarta. But what ensues is an even grander tale of betrayal and back-stabs, with our hero Rama in the middle of it all. The Raid 2 is an ultimately simplistic movie that follows a basic plot and predictable turns at its core. But what we're really here for is the stellar, bloody, brutal and hardcore action. And you'll get your cake and eat the whole thing.

The multiple fights throughout are choreographed with incredible style and professionalism, and exceed the first in every way. The new villains as well are the strongest fights of the whole film and are a great addition to the formula and add a sort of wild fantastical element to The Raid 2. There's not much more to say; the action is simply peerless and fans of intense and violent martial arts movies will be thrilled. This is not for the squeamish or those used to American action movies.

Performances are strong and very believable, with main character Iko Uwais doing a great job as the conflicted undercover cop. The rest of the cast is intense and well acted too, and the villains really remind me of the various badguys from classic John Woo films from back in the 1980's. The soundtrack is typical, a little annoying at times. The bone crunching effects bring a fantastic level of realism and brutality to each fight.

There's really not much more to say than that. The Raid 2 is simply peerless in action, choreography, martial arts and ultra-violence. It's your classic undercover-cop-fighting-crime-lords story, where the good guys win and the bad guys lose. But, like all of the great artists in history have said at one point some way or another: the beauty is in the execution. And indeed it is beautiful.

Second Time Through: the plot made much more sense (and it helps to watch 1 & 2 back to back). It's definitely far better than the original, and the crime drama is actually pretty good (seeing it the first time through was a little confusing - the fast paced Indonesian dialogue is sometimes hard to keep up with!). Overall, an exhaustingly brutal and epically violent crime tale that is a blast to watch.