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The Raid 2: Berandal
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
Final Verdict: [Meh...]
The Raid 2: Berandal
Martial Arts Action Drama / Indonesian / 2014
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
For the Action Movie Countdown.
ALRIGHT, let's do this.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
Originally Posted by MovieMeditation
The Raid 2 is legendary.
Originally Posted by Derek Vinyard
The Raid 2 FTW.
Originally Posted by Mr Minio
Actually a pretty good film. I liked it twice as much as the first installment.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
Dog, Fishing, *reels from headache* I... **** this movie.
I didn't like it. I didn't like it. It was just... AGAIN some decent fight choreography, but the ****in' ugly aesthetic, the near total lack of characterization, and... what's WORSE is that you managed to **** up the best thing you had going for you in the first movie: The pace! The premise! The ****in' RAID!
It takes you TWO HOURS to get to anything that could conceivably be called a raid? Are ****in' kidding me? I don't care about this political crime syndicate ****, it takes me forever to figure out which characters I'm supposed to me focused on and once I'm focused on them it's just this flaccid plot about some uppity piece of **** mobster kid who wants to overthrow his dad yadayadayada alongside this thoroughly uninvolving main plot about Rama (whose name I finally remember) going undercover. There's no intrigue there's no... it's just AGAIN characters I don't know or care about backstabbing other characters I don't know or care about.
Who was the fuzzy old hobo guy who just HAPPENS to be a martial arts master?
Why does the mobster's son immediately suspect his business partner of planting the wire when Rama has already attacked his men once?
Why does he still shoot him when Rama's literally in the same room as him and trying to kill him after having murdered an entire building full of his people?
Why does he turn his back to do it?
Why does Rama let such an easy opportunity to end it pass?
Why is Rama even called a rookie when he can survive a gang, a crime syndicate, and police armed with knives?
Why are they armed with KNIVES? Why are we just handwaving the idea of police solving crimes by running out into the streets and STABBING PEOPLE?
I could let all of this go, but you failed not once, but TWICE now and this time worse than the first! What was so hard about this Raid concept that you practically ditched the premise in favor of bloating your dry scab of a story? Was the puke-yellow prison mud fight really that essential? Was the fact that the bad guys are filming strap-on anal porn in a disgusting building just... the ONE THING that was missing in the first movie? Is the extent of your creativity seriously a deaf girl beating a factory's worth of squibs out of people with hammers? Is that her specialty? Just claw hammers? You couldn't cheese it up a bit?
This humorless, bleak, bloody, ugly, boring piece of ****?
Here's what I WAS HOPING FOR, picture this:
Just like the first movie, we briefly setup the raid, right? Maybe the movie's a fancy resort hotel or something, okay? Something with a lot of different rooms. You could throw a gym or a pool or rationalize all sorts of **** for different settings and props. We compartmentalize each floor of the building (like we started doing in the first movie) and distinguish them by their different settings, props, or enemies. Certain floors could have ambushes, use a particular range of weapons, one floor could be filled with poisonous gas or covered with tacks, or be trapped, it could have lots of enemies or one really dangerous enemy, and we'd allow our character(s) to adapt, improvise, collect, and exploit the various obstacles on their way to the top. It could be like Dark Floors where every floor is thematically different and filled with it's own unique threats.
One character? Fighting his way through that? WOULD BE AWESOME.
Butchu couldn't even do that.
The Raid 2's not really what I would call BAD... but it's a disappointment, it ruthlessly boring, and it felt like a waste of my life.
I didn't like it. I didn't like it. It was just... AGAIN some decent fight choreography, but the ****in' ugly aesthetic, the near total lack of characterization, and... what's WORSE is that you managed to **** up the best thing you had going for you in the first movie: The pace! The premise! The ****in' RAID!
It takes you TWO HOURS to get to anything that could conceivably be called a raid? Are ****in' kidding me? I don't care about this political crime syndicate ****, it takes me forever to figure out which characters I'm supposed to me focused on and once I'm focused on them it's just this flaccid plot about some uppity piece of **** mobster kid who wants to overthrow his dad yadayadayada alongside this thoroughly uninvolving main plot about Rama (whose name I finally remember) going undercover. There's no intrigue there's no... it's just AGAIN characters I don't know or care about backstabbing other characters I don't know or care about.
Who was the fuzzy old hobo guy who just HAPPENS to be a martial arts master?
Why does the mobster's son immediately suspect his business partner of planting the wire when Rama has already attacked his men once?
Why does he still shoot him when Rama's literally in the same room as him and trying to kill him after having murdered an entire building full of his people?
Why does he turn his back to do it?
Why does Rama let such an easy opportunity to end it pass?
Why is Rama even called a rookie when he can survive a gang, a crime syndicate, and police armed with knives?
Why are they armed with KNIVES? Why are we just handwaving the idea of police solving crimes by running out into the streets and STABBING PEOPLE?
I could let all of this go, but you failed not once, but TWICE now and this time worse than the first! What was so hard about this Raid concept that you practically ditched the premise in favor of bloating your dry scab of a story? Was the puke-yellow prison mud fight really that essential? Was the fact that the bad guys are filming strap-on anal porn in a disgusting building just... the ONE THING that was missing in the first movie? Is the extent of your creativity seriously a deaf girl beating a factory's worth of squibs out of people with hammers? Is that her specialty? Just claw hammers? You couldn't cheese it up a bit?
This humorless, bleak, bloody, ugly, boring piece of ****?
Here's what I WAS HOPING FOR, picture this:
Just like the first movie, we briefly setup the raid, right? Maybe the movie's a fancy resort hotel or something, okay? Something with a lot of different rooms. You could throw a gym or a pool or rationalize all sorts of **** for different settings and props. We compartmentalize each floor of the building (like we started doing in the first movie) and distinguish them by their different settings, props, or enemies. Certain floors could have ambushes, use a particular range of weapons, one floor could be filled with poisonous gas or covered with tacks, or be trapped, it could have lots of enemies or one really dangerous enemy, and we'd allow our character(s) to adapt, improvise, collect, and exploit the various obstacles on their way to the top. It could be like Dark Floors where every floor is thematically different and filled with it's own unique threats.
One character? Fighting his way through that? WOULD BE AWESOME.
Butchu couldn't even do that.
The Raid 2's not really what I would call BAD... but it's a disappointment, it ruthlessly boring, and it felt like a waste of my life.