The Raid 2 - Bring on ‘Raid 3’

In a cinematic world filled with action films that are all cloned from ‘Bourne’ movies, i.e. where our hero is mercilessly pursued across one city after the next by relentless government agents, it’s actually quite nice to see a change of style (and in a sequel, no less!).

The original ‘Raid’ film was quite a condensed little piece, set in Indonesia it was about a police raid that went bad, leaving only a handful of survivors left alive.  Part II starts only a matter of hours after the first one ends and the only honest cop left alive finds he’s still in hot water when a secret team of police officers recruit him to go undercover and infiltrate what’s left of the gangs who run the city’s crime.

Now the ‘raid’ is really a raid in name only.  There’s no raid in the sequel, just a story which revolves around our downtrodden police hero and his attempts to infiltrate those he has sworn to destroy.  It does – naturally – have subtitles, so you’ll need to be okay with reading them while you’re watching. 

Strangely enough, for an action film, there’s quite a bit to it.  It’s quite a long film – over two hours – and some might say that that is too long to just watch multiple martial arts scenes (did I mention you really need to be a fan of martial arts movies to appreciate this?).  However, it never really outstays its welcome and actually moves pretty quickly.

In fact… our hero almost becomes forgotten as a fair amount of the story is dedicated to the gang members and how they’re attempting to doublecross each other.  Some of the enemies almost become even more memorable than our hero, who almost starts to seem bland in comparison.

Perhaps one of the Raid 2’s strengths is the way it’s filmed.  If ever a film has a ‘look and feel’ then it does here.  Every visual is striking and, even if you’re not reading the subtitles, each shot is pretty breath-taking.

Okay, so you need to truly be into action and/or martial arts movies to fully get the most out of the Raid 2, but anyone who loves film and doesn’t mind the subtitles should appreciate the arty overall feel of watching grown men throw each other over toilet cubicles.  Oh, yeah… and it’s a little bit violent here and there – expect the red stuff to flow.

8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one