The Raid 2

If Gareth Evans controlled the characters and dialogues as skillfully as Andy Lau did in Infernal Affairs, The Raid 2 would have been the best action movie ever, even better than the best of John Woo in the fight scenes. But it’s too long, with too many characters and an overly complicated plot. For this to be a pureblood action movie, there are too many dialogue scenes that fill two-thirds of the film and try to build a mega-epic drama. Visually, however, it is perfect – especially the interiors are refined in the manner of Kubrick. A great aesthetic experience on the big screen at Karlovy Vary’s Thermal Hotel. (11/07/2014)

(49th KVIFF) The atmosphere in the big theatre was unique, but the sequel of The Raid was a big disappointment for me, mainly because it’s a totally different genre than the first one, which was basically a horror survival. Here Evans tries to tell some kind of intricate Mafia drama with a complex story, but he is not quite successful at it: the motivations are lost, the plan as a whole is unclear and, mostly, it’s terribly boring overall. The moment they start kicking the living shit out of each other, though, it’s nice to watch. The choreography of the fights is amazing, but they don’t make much sense from a narrative standpoint. The last hour, when the characters finally have said everything they wanted to say, it’s fun, but the bad aftertaste of the gruelling ninety minutes that preceded it is impossible to forget. Evans should come back down to earth. (12/07/2014)

The first film was the work of an excellent choreographer, part two an excellent director. The first film is a test reel for this heavy stuff. Sure, it has a simpler structure and thus a seemingly stronger push, but where Evans hit the accelerator pedal to floor the after a few minutes (and monotonously hummed after a few minutes), he demonstrates in part two the precise revving of the machine. At the end it gets to a speed where I say quite responsibly: I have not seen anything better, more pampered, more of a catalyst and more brutal in an action film. Kinetic crap that only the third Bourne film can compete with. Evans also turns out to be a good narrator, if not a screenwriter - he works well with the acting material (the return of the man-macaque !!!), delicately pulls the atmosphere of corpse neon sets even in quiet passages and manages to squeeze more from the main character than an elbow harvester. Despite the rather murderous runtime and the very transparent plot, it holds tight and does not let go. The film has very simple but brutally effective emotions under an incredibly badass aesthetic surface. The film hooked me so much that I experienced the kitchen scene with Rama (together and deliciously) physically - for me, it's A Space Odyssey of fight scenes. The Raid 2 it is not just a level plaything, but rather a monstrous and enchanting world, something similar to what Refn tried to do in Only God Forgives. This is a major genre event for me, compared to which the competition is just shaking with digital and wired shame. [95%] (29/07/2014)

The Raid 2 is for contact action movies what Heat is for he crime movies, what The Dark Knight is for comic book movies, what Once Upon a Time in the West is for westerns and what The Shining is for horror movies. Basically, a genre movie that breaks down the boundaries of this “ignoble" movie genre. It is the plot that’s the most surprising about part two. Yes, really, the plot, something that last time didn’t even figure as essential stuffing, simply because it chose to be nonexistent. This time we have a plot good enough to stand alone even without all that neat action stuff. This time it is a broad uncompromising dirty Hong Kong-style gangster movie that reminds you of Internal Affairs etc. and where the motivations and emotions make sense. In any case, most viewers will just be watching it for the action scenes anyway. And the pleasing thing about it is that even though the choreography was extremely ambitious (and very gory) offering incredible crowd scenes as well as extreme “face to face" fight scenes, it really hurts (the characters and the viewer; especially the final fight scene in the spotlessly white kitchen) and it’s made without any fancy stuff; no tough-guy lines or hyperbole, no shaking camera hand in hand with machinegun editing to cover imperfections and punches that missed, no wires and obvious CGI, but everything nice and clear using long (really long) takes. So, while the rather monotonous part one contained quite a few scenes that were worth watching more than once, here the whole two-and-a-half hour movie is worth your while to watch more than once. And with a movie where everybody’s hitting everybody else all the time, that is the best possible recommendation. (21/06/2014)

Great fights were given a well-written story which, despite its immense length, isn’t boring for a minute. Also Iko Uwais isn’t the ultimate crusher and doesn’t win every fight. Crowd fights alternate with shootouts and one-on-one fist fights. Evans has hammers, machetes, aluminum baseball bats, broom handles up his sleeve and pulls them out with the best action - and I mean at least one level better than in part one. Harder and heavier. If it’s at all possible. (27/06/2014)