There's no "redemption" for the disappointing Raid 2.
In 2012, Welsh-born filmmaker Gareth Evans reinvented the
action movie with The Raid: Redemption – an Indonesian martial arts film heralded
for its brutal action sequences.
Its sequel – appropriately, The Raid 2 – was touted as The
Godfather, part II of action movies by critics and audiences who had seen
advance screenings at the Sundance Film Festival.
It pains me that I bought into it because the film turned out
to be another victim of “sequel syndrome.” That’s when a filmmaker tries to
repeat initial success by making the next one bigger and badder. In turn, the
sequel loses sight of what made its predecessor so fantastic.
The first Raid was a taut, focused thriller that relied on
visceral, hand-to-hand combat and gunplay to generate thrills. There were no
complicated subplots, and no overload on character development – just good, old
fashioned ass-kicking from start to finish.
The Raid 2 starts two hours after the end of Redemption. Our hero, Rama (Iko Uwais), is sent undercover to infiltrate an organized crime
syndicate. We assume the syndicate is the same that the villain from the first
film was working for. The synopsis for The Raid 2 on IMDb also suggests that
Rama sets out to uncover corruption within his police force, but I didn't catch
any of that. It would've been way more interesting with police corruption
in it.
As it stands, Evans tries to add some depth to his colorful
cast of characters, which is okay. It’s clear that he wanted to up the scope
from a single apartment building to an entire city, and I admire him for wanting
to take risks with the narrative.
Besides, if your hero makes quick work of a single
high-rise, who wouldn't want to see how he fares against a whole city full of
thugs?
Where “The Raid 2” suffers is with its high number of central
characters. Evans spends too much time trying to develop irrelevant characters
with bland dialogue. That’s why the movie is about 45 minutes too long. (It’s two
and a half hours altogether!)
What also pissed me off was the fact that Evans used Yayan
Ruhian in both movies. Fans know that his character suffered a grisly fate at
the end of The Raid: Redemption. It’s a confusing surprise to see the actor
return as a different character in The Raid 2. I just kept thinking, “What the
hell is he doing here??? If he honestly survived the first movie, I quit.”
Clearly Evans likes Ruhian. I suppose the director wanted to
keep him around for his excellent fight choreography.
The niche audience of testosterone-fueled teenage boys and
adrenaline-crazed girls that sits down to watch The Raid does so to see some
of the finest fight sequences ever committed to film.
Both movies have plenty of that. Uwais and Ruhian are masters of “silat,” a method of Indonesian martial arts. Their fast-paced moves and Evans’ top-notch editing make this franchise’s action scenes worth the price of admission. The new sequel is just bogged down by too much exposition to recommend over its predecessor.
C-
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