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The Raid 2, 2014
Following shortly on the events from the first film, Rama (Iko Uwais) gets enmeshed in a plot to expose corrupt police officials, all the way to the top. Rama goes undercover and becomes involved with crime-lord heir apparent Uco (Arifin Putra). A gauntlet of violent crosses and double-crosses tests Rama's resolve as circumstances pit violent gangs against one another.
I am a definite appreciator of action films with choreography that shows off the performers' athleticism, and will happily watch a film that uses even the flimsiest of stories to string together such sequences. I was disappointed that I never really clicked with this film, despite a slew of gifted performers and enjoying its style very much.
I said that I can accept flimsy stories in an action movie, but the story here is pretty decent. I'll admit that I sometimes had trouble tracking the different loyalties and affiliations, but this is not a movie that feels like a video game with the protagonist simply pinballing from one villain to another. There are a range of relationships at play, which adds diversity to the characters involved in the fights. Usually we watch just one or two main characters battle everyone, but here we get a lot of different combinations of adversaries.
The movie also has some really great shots and camera movement. The camera takes great advantage of the different settings and spaces. There are fights that take place in big open spaces, and fights that take place in much more cramped quarters. There are neat choices in angles, use of reflections/staging, and pops of color here and there. The characters of Baseball Bat Man (Very Tri Yulisman) and Hammer Girl (Julie Estelle) feel like they've maybe come from a slightly more heightened reality, but they are stylish as all get out.
The action itself is also, obviously, very solid.
This is a case of me not having anything I can pinpoint as a negative. I never really gelled with the movie, and maybe having a little trouble with tracking the characters was part of that. The subtitles were kind of clunky and made the flow of listening to and reading the dialogue a bit more of a chore than is typical, and maybe that was part of the disconnect. There's nothing in the film itself I can point to and say, "This was just average". My reaction to the first film was generally positive, and I hoped I'd feel similar about this one. Instead I feel about a notch lower than how I felt about the first. Kind of a bummer.
The Raid 2, 2014
Following shortly on the events from the first film, Rama (Iko Uwais) gets enmeshed in a plot to expose corrupt police officials, all the way to the top. Rama goes undercover and becomes involved with crime-lord heir apparent Uco (Arifin Putra). A gauntlet of violent crosses and double-crosses tests Rama's resolve as circumstances pit violent gangs against one another.
I am a definite appreciator of action films with choreography that shows off the performers' athleticism, and will happily watch a film that uses even the flimsiest of stories to string together such sequences. I was disappointed that I never really clicked with this film, despite a slew of gifted performers and enjoying its style very much.
I said that I can accept flimsy stories in an action movie, but the story here is pretty decent. I'll admit that I sometimes had trouble tracking the different loyalties and affiliations, but this is not a movie that feels like a video game with the protagonist simply pinballing from one villain to another. There are a range of relationships at play, which adds diversity to the characters involved in the fights. Usually we watch just one or two main characters battle everyone, but here we get a lot of different combinations of adversaries.
The movie also has some really great shots and camera movement. The camera takes great advantage of the different settings and spaces. There are fights that take place in big open spaces, and fights that take place in much more cramped quarters. There are neat choices in angles, use of reflections/staging, and pops of color here and there. The characters of Baseball Bat Man (Very Tri Yulisman) and Hammer Girl (Julie Estelle) feel like they've maybe come from a slightly more heightened reality, but they are stylish as all get out.
The action itself is also, obviously, very solid.
This is a case of me not having anything I can pinpoint as a negative. I never really gelled with the movie, and maybe having a little trouble with tracking the characters was part of that. The subtitles were kind of clunky and made the flow of listening to and reading the dialogue a bit more of a chore than is typical, and maybe that was part of the disconnect. There's nothing in the film itself I can point to and say, "This was just average". My reaction to the first film was generally positive, and I hoped I'd feel similar about this one. Instead I feel about a notch lower than how I felt about the first. Kind of a bummer.