GRANT
No matter how civilized humanity as a whole becomes, there’s always a part of us that seems to enjoy watching other human beings beating each other senseless… among other things. Courtesy of the moving picture, we’re able get our fill of people pummeling each other half to death without anyone having to be seriously hurt.
Unfortunately, like most things popularized by Western society, martial arts films seem to have had the extent of their moment in the spotlight, and instead of crowning new stars of the genre (now that actors like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, etc have aged considerably) Hollywood has pretty much abandoned Kung Fu films, at least until they become popular again.
Thankfully, this attitude isn’t something that’s shared by international film makers, and fans of the genre have been able to watch some incredible fight choreography courtesy of these international films. One of the best films to fall into that genre in the past few years was The Raid: Redemption. Although films like the Raid aren’t especially known for having strong plots, memorable action sequences are what usually leave viewers wanting more, and the original Raid had those types of scenes in spades.
“The Raid 2” picks up where the original film left off and, to its credit, really makes an emphasis on establishing a plot that doesn’t just serve as filler between action sequences. However, the overall story isn’t that strong or easy to follow. A weak story line isn’t anything new for a martial arts film, and as a viewer you’re better off enjoying this film for its strengths instead of its cliché riddled weaknesses. One of this film’s main strengths(that the original couldn’t get quite right) is a better introduction of the film’s antagonists.
While the first film only has one real memorable villain with almost no back story, this film has several of them, all with their unique personality traits and varying degrees of background depth. You look forward to seeing their inevitable clash with Rama (the film’s protagonist) and the pay off is incredible.
Ultimately, the Raid 2 has a bigger budget than the original and it shows in all the right places. The story line opens up some potential for future (and hopefully better written) sequels, and I would be willing to argue that most of the fight scenes surpass the original. I give it an 8/10.
