One of the nice things about those 10 minute stretches of violent fights? I get a break from reading subtitles.
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“The Raid 2” or Raid 2: Berandal as I’ve also seen it, follows Rama as he continues to violently fight his way out of trouble. This time he finds himself at the center of discord between the two crime cartels fighting for control of his city. If you ever saw the original Raid you know it’s all about the fighting, and finding new and creative ways to make people bleed and die through martial arts. OK that may be over simplifying, but not by much.
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There is an actual story here, and I found myself more engaged this time than the first in seeing how it played out. Sure it’s still a flimsy excuse to hang a series of battles on, but I at least felt like I understand what was going on enough to root for our guy to get the job done. And boy does he ever. I’m not a big violence guy, but these fight scenes are pretty amazing and beautifully choreographed. I’d even call it the best thing. There is a reason they are called martial “artists” because the paintings these guys were painting with their fists were gorgeous. I also thought the way the film used wide shots and framing made for some really striking visuals as well.
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But all those wonderfully choreographed segments mean nothing if I fall asleep in between them, which I might have if I wasn’t actively reading the subtitles. Let’s go ahead and mark this as the worst thing, this movie was too long with some incredibly drawn out and boring sections. It’s as if anytime we get away from the fighting the director doesn’t quite know what to do with it. A better editor could have easily chopped the 2 and a half hour running time down under 2 without losing the things the audience loved. Of course, in reviewing Raid 1 I said that it needed to slow down and soak in the story every once in a while, so obviously I’m a fickle man who just can’t be pleased… or there’s a balance in there somewhere, one of the two. It’s also worth mentioning that the movie does play to the extremes, with content of all kinds meant to shock or get a reaction. I mean come on, one of the fighters is a gal who uses the claw end of hammers to fight with, you can extrapolate where it goes from there. Oh one more thing. I also found it convenient that there were guns all over the place except for those times our hero runs into a large group of enemies, then all of the sudden the only weapons available are body parts. But I digress
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At the end of the day, The Raid 2 takes everything from the original raid and amps it up. Some beautiful fight choreography and decently told story elements aren’t nearly enough to offset a movie that is way too long and often slow. I land right at a C
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Thanks for checking out this Your Movie Friend review, stay tuned for this review’s “Best Ever” challenge here in bit but first, I’m going to put up some stuff you can click over in this area. If you’d like to subscribe, which I would much appreciate, you can do so by clicking the big gray subscribe button. Want to see more? Then click to see my latest reviews or Rio 2, Oculus, and Draft Day. You can also Click the logo up here to go to yourmoviefriend.com where you can search by title for reviews. And finally this review’s “Best Ever” Challenge, where you name the best movie ever in a particular category and also try to identify my choice. Let’s just go with a big category this time. What is the “the best martial arts movie ever”. I know its silly but I think I have to go with the one that had me balancing on one leg for most of my childhood.. Drop your own answer and a guess at mine in the comments and first person to guess mine gets a point! Thanks and please subscribe!