When I finished watching this movie... I was left speechless. Usually, I would probably dislike mindless action films... the only notable exceptions being Transformers and Ninja Assassin, both guilty pleasures in their own right.
The Raid came off as the most insane movie I've ever seen. Gareth Evans really had the guts to pull it off: giving us a clichéd protagonist with a mediocre motivation and a weak, nonsensical plot, and instead, throws at us 99 solid minutes of mindless skull-bashing action and brain-numbing violence, inviting us to step into one adrenaline-maxed out scenario after another, the intensity of the fights escalating as the movie progresses, making all of the Hong Kong action films I grew up watching seem like child's play.
The film does have its rare calm moments in between brawls, but they are all too short to make an impression. When it does cool down... you're biting your nails, wondering what vicious and imaginative way would the director execute another fight scene or kill more people off. And when it arrives, the sequences would leave any viewer attempting to catch their breath... but the film just leaves no room for that.
Mindless action aside, the cinematography and editing were awesome, not what was I expecting from a movie that cost 1.1 million dollars to make, contributing to the intensity of the film. The gritty and dark photography cranks up the tension to the max, making it one of the best films that would get your heart racing by the second minute, a wondrous experience for action fanatics.
Forget the solid acting, the unbelievable situations of the film (Where the hell in Jakarta can you find a flat populated entirely by ridiculously psychotic or mentally sick criminals who knows how to put up a good fight whenever confronted?), the terrible and recycled writing. Leave your brain at the doorstep and watch it, immense yourself. I highly recommend this to any action fan.
The Raid came off as the most insane movie I've ever seen. Gareth Evans really had the guts to pull it off: giving us a clichéd protagonist with a mediocre motivation and a weak, nonsensical plot, and instead, throws at us 99 solid minutes of mindless skull-bashing action and brain-numbing violence, inviting us to step into one adrenaline-maxed out scenario after another, the intensity of the fights escalating as the movie progresses, making all of the Hong Kong action films I grew up watching seem like child's play.
The film does have its rare calm moments in between brawls, but they are all too short to make an impression. When it does cool down... you're biting your nails, wondering what vicious and imaginative way would the director execute another fight scene or kill more people off. And when it arrives, the sequences would leave any viewer attempting to catch their breath... but the film just leaves no room for that.
Mindless action aside, the cinematography and editing were awesome, not what was I expecting from a movie that cost 1.1 million dollars to make, contributing to the intensity of the film. The gritty and dark photography cranks up the tension to the max, making it one of the best films that would get your heart racing by the second minute, a wondrous experience for action fanatics.
Forget the solid acting, the unbelievable situations of the film (Where the hell in Jakarta can you find a flat populated entirely by ridiculously psychotic or mentally sick criminals who knows how to put up a good fight whenever confronted?), the terrible and recycled writing. Leave your brain at the doorstep and watch it, immense yourself. I highly recommend this to any action fan.