This review will be Spoiler-Free!!
How to watch: Rent from Amazon from $2.99
Runtime: 1hour 41minutes
Starring: Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Ray Sahetapy
Director: Gareth Evans (as Gareth Huw Evans)
Writer: Gareth Evans (as Gareth Huw Evans)
Rating: R(US), Not Rated(available)
Release Date: 4/13/2012
Style: Action, Martial Arts, Indonesian, Violent
For more details on the movie, you can check out its IMDB page.
Iko Uwais Violently Announces His Arrival With A Silat-Fueled Assault
I remember hearing this movie mentioned often when talking about martial arts movies with others starting a few years ago. At the time, I had no idea what they were talking about. Admittedly, I kind of brushed it off as many people I know prefer other styles of martial arts movies that I don’t enjoy as much, like Wuxia. I like my movies to be a bit more grounded and less fantastical. However, the more I kept hearing The Raid: Redemption mentioned, I started asking more questions. I kept hearing phrases like “badass”, “phenomenal”, and “amazing” from friends and acquaintances that had seen the movie. I’ve heard lots of those phrases attached to lots of other things and found that they usually don’t live up to the hype. Good? Yeah. “Amazing?” Not exactly.
While I have seen this movie before, I purposely sat down to watch it again to make sure it was fresh on my mind. So, how was it? Was it “amazing”, “phenomenal”, and/or “badass”? Let me lay it out for you.
Synopsis
A S.W.A.T. team is tasked with clearing a high-rise building. However, it is controlled by a vicious drug lord and his two lieutenants. In addition, the S.W.A.T. team must clear out floor after floor of the drug lords loyal thugs before getting to the drug lords secure floor.
Movie Review: 7/10
The Good:
The story presented to us starts with giving us a look at a young S.W.A.T. member, Rama(Iko Uwais), getting ready for work (with some prayer and badass heavy bag work), kissing his pregnant wife goodbye, and telling a person that is likely his father that he will bring “him” home. This is just one of the well-executed moment in the movie that connected me with Rama and his motivations. Throughout the movie, we are reminded just enough why he continues to fight and push forward despite the odds. These moments are sprinkled in just enough to be effective without slowing things down too much. For the few characters that actually get to benefit from some of the story, it works quite well for them. Overall, Gareth Evans does a really good job of telling the story through the action and less exposition(dialogue). He lets the actions of the characters give us reasons to care about some and despise others.
The director has a sure hand and feel throughout the movie with the camera work on display here. The camera is sometimes “shaky” but it is only when it actually supports the moment and never gets ridiculous. The “shaky” camera work is simply used to accentuate the moment, which is the way it should be. The camera angle changes are well-done, without being too fast, and I never lost understanding of where everybody was at in the scene. Again, quick scene cuts were only used to accentuate the tension of the moment, not to create tension. While some scenes are dark, I did not lose track of what was happening.
The Bad:
While the story serves Rama and a couple of other characters pretty well, it is overall pretty thin. There is no significant depth to be had here for the bulk of the characters. While Gareth Evans uses action-based storytelling very well for most of the other characters, a little more story-telling could have helped here. Additionally, we know next to nothing about how this drug lord controls the whole building, despite him mentioning someone higher up at one point. However, these are not significant knocks on the movie as it stands but they are there.
Martial Arts Review: 9.5/10
The Good:
Ok, so let me just say it like this: Sit down, grab your popcorn, and hold on tight! This is easily one of the two or three best martial arts performances on film I have ever seen in my life, period. The Raid: Redemption starts strong and never lets you down. Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, and Yayan Ruhian, along with the others, absolutely knock it out of the park here. The fights are rough, brutal, and will give you sympathy pain. The choreography is absolutely top notch here.
The camera work is also really well done here, deftly capturing all of the hard work that the actors and stunt crew are putting in. The camera work oscillates between smooth and sharp, steady and shaky as the scene dictates. Virtually every camera angle and technique serves to support the drama and tension on screen, but never to create something that isn’t there. None of the actors need choppy edits and excessive shaky-cam to make them look better, and Gareth Evans knows it. He and the camera crew smartly lets them do their thing and just work to capture it to the best of their ability.
The Bad:
Honestly, I tried hard to find some kind of shortcoming in the action and had significant difficulty doing so. The only thing I found, and this is extremely minor, is that some characters take a bit too much damage to realistically keep fighting at near-optimal levels. Not all the time, but there are a couple of instances of this. Yeah, that’s all I got.
Overall Review: 8.2/10
So, was The Raid: Redemption “amazing”, “phenomenal”, and/or “badass”? You bet it was! This was one of those movies that changed the way I saw martial arts movies. It significantly raised the bar on what great choreography and camera work in a martial arts film should look like. While the story is not going to win any Oscars, it is handled fairly well considering its minimalist nature. For me, The Raid: Redemption is a movie that should be considered a Gold Standard of choreography and camerawork. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend you fix that soon.
Have you seen The Raid: Redemption? What did you think? Am I way off target, or am I hitting a bullseye here? Let me know in the comments section below!
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