REVIEW: The Raid 2

Remember when you first watched The Raid and your mind was screaming at you to not look away or blink in case you’d miss something because you’d never forgive yourself, and what if it’s that part that everyone ends up talking about, but you soon realise the whole thing is and that gives you more reason not to look away?

I haven’t blinked since.

Then The Raid 2 was announced. Blinking is now a by-product of the stroke I’ve since suffered.

As expected I was blown away. This mammoth of a film, which I expected to be, like its former, short but have a large impact, was two and a half hours long. This didn’t mean the film was too long, but in fact the film ended when I wanted it to come out of the screen and continue around me for the rest of my life. It had so much more money. Rightly so, they were given millions to create another Indonesian ‘pencak silat’ art masterpiece. What am I babbling about? Well, I’ve done my research. Silat is the martial arts used in this film, and my god is it brutal. The discipline is from Southern East Asia which tends to focus on strikes, joint manipulation, throws and bladed weaponry. It is also my new obsession. (If you get a chance, watch Iko Uwais on YouTube. I want to hug him. But during dinner, or something, not when he’s angry).

A while back, I read a review about The Raid hastily giving it one star, simply because there wasn’t enough character development. Well, that guy must be fucking excited to learn that this film is not shot in one location, but people are getting their teeth kicked in all over Indonesia, allowing for more scope. The story continues a few hours  on from the last, and our badass-sweetheart-hero is trying to wrap up the shenanigans from the tower block, and suddenly finds himself going deep undercover in order to infiltrate the unkempt, rotting underbelly of the corrupt police via the main crime syndicate Jakarta (which has connections over in Japan). For this, he must go to jail and become friends with Uco, the crime boss’s son. From here, we watch Rama (our lovely little boy) turn into a ruthless killer. You see him as he begins to relish in the win, and yearn for a fight. Our little baby is turning bad! No, no he’s not. Chill out. You silly bastards. He’s too lovely.

Jakarta have many enemies dressed as allies, and within Rama’s fight, we encounter the power struggle in the roles within these conflicting gangs. Mainly Uco’s yearning to take the throne and rebel against the Japanese, because apparently his dad has his tongue firmly up Japan’s ass.

Iko Uwais plays our hero Rama, whose undercover name is Yuda (Yuda is actually a nod to the first film Iko and the director did together called Merantau). The level of talent needed to create this film is beyond my thinking. Iko is a silat master, a stuntman and now also an actor. He was discovered by the director while researching into the silat artform, and instantly cast him in his first film. Iko’s performance is not only choreographed by him, but so are his falls and throws. His emotions are channeled despite being an unskilled actor. This is a performance. Not a singular skill, but many, all honed so effortlessly into this film.

I think one of the biggest shocks I had was learning that the director was Welshman Gareth Evans, whose work predominately consists of Indonesian martial arts. He now lives in Indonesia, and breathes silat. I’m beginning to notice a pattern and wonder if all of his films will be based around bad ass martial arts which, to be honest, I really fucking hope so.

Yes, that’s right. This is a photo of ‘Mad Dog’ from the first Raid. But he died, right? RIGHT? Right. He did die. But according to Gareth, he refuses to make a film without him (actor’s name is Yayan Ruhian). His reappearance is not explained, which is a bit of a downer, as you spend too long trying to figure out what happened to him and why he’s still hanging around. Instead, you should be embracing the character, and he is a hell of a character. He still kicks ass; he can take on over 100 people at once, I will bet my Scrooged vinyl on it. His character has depth and feelings, and you may do a little cry for him if you have any feelings or tear ducts or life within you.

We are also introduced to a collection of new characters, all of which are fucking fabulous. Ones that may stick with you after the film are Baseball Bat Man and (particularly) Hammer Girl. the siblings are adopted by the crime lord Bejo, who trains them as killers. I’m sure you can tell what their specialities are without me having to explain, so I’ll just leave it at that.

The characters are fun and great, but don’t get much screen time. Which is fine by me, it’s just infuriating that people discuss them endlessly, when there’s much more going on in this film. So much more to obsess over.

The camera work is sublime. My head would turn with the camera, as I try my hardest not only to make sure I don’t miss anything, but that I see it all through their eyes.

4.5 out of 5 for this bastard of a film. I fucking loved it.

Here, have a gif of Hammer Girl being awesome.