The Raid 2

Gareth Evans didn't pay much attention to plot or character development in his surprise 2011 hit The Raid. It was mainly all about lashings of claret and some of the most bonkers action scenes seen since John Woo was in his prime. For this follow up Evans has a much broader canvas on which to paint his violent masterpieces, but the film gets stuck between telling a fuller story and Evans trying to throw in as many outrageous moments as he can. This sequel starts off but a few hours following the end of the last film, but the uninitiated will be able to pick up what’s going on as this is basically an undercover cop in the criminal underworld type deal. This is a frustrating film from Evans. At times he’s a skilled operator behind the camera (some of his swooping tracking shots are reminiscent of Wells and Scorsese) and whist the sub-plots of feuding between gangs and family’s are old hat in gangster films, the script has enough to distract you from the over the top action. To that action then; this is where the film (unless you’re a card-carrying genre fan) falls down. Despite some great moments fight fatigue sets in well before the end and it’s all a bit silly in parts (a scene of hammer mayhem on a train is where the film comes dangerously close to parody). Plus it’s hard for Evans to deny this isn’t just violence for violence’s sake, especially an infamous shotgun head shot that is shown in such hideous detail it’s really only gone in for shock value. Throw in other negatives like Iko Uwais’ performance (he can certainly kick bottom, but his thesping leaves a lot to be desired) and odd plot devices like the one involving a bug which is so huge it wouldn’t look out of place in a 1960’s episode of Mission: Impossible, you’ll begin to wonder if these films are getting better critical plaudits than they actually deserve. Still, if you like films that involve scenes of bloody murder involving characters called such things as “Hammer Girl” and “Baseball Bat Man”, then step right this way. Rating: 6/10.