Rent The Raid 2 on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Gareth Evans
Directed by: Gareth Evans
Starring: Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian, Arifin Putra
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
Only a short time after the first raid, Rama goes undercover with the thugs of Jakarta and plans to bring down the syndicate and uncover the corruption within his police force.
Verdict
This is longer than it needs to be. While the last third delivers everything you'd expect and more, the first two thirds are a lot of setup that's so familiar it's boring. We get an undercover agent trying to protect his cover and an ambitious yet slighted son he must befriend. It's too much story for a movie where I want to see martial arts. Once we get past, which is most of the movie, we get a something similar to the original that's brutal, bloody, and action packed.
It depends.
Review
I re-watched The Raid, so of course I had to re-watch the sequel. I first saw this over eight years ago.
Picking up almost immediately where the first movie ended, Rama (Iko Uwais) is recruited to go undercover. In just the first few scenes this creates more story than the entire first movie. Rama infiltrates the prison to befriend Uco (Arifin Putra), the son of a high level criminal. Through a prison riot and subsequent fight Rama befriends Uco.
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| Cecep Arif Rahman, Iko Uwais play The Assassin, Rama |
There's a lot of setup to this, having to establish Uco as petulant and entitled. He's ruthless and ambitious which will only lead to trouble. Uco wants a promotion and thinks he should get it de facto since his father is the gang boss. That doesn't happen which is the basis for much of the plot. Rama must try to blend in with the criminal element, committing acts that he doesn't like but are necessary to keep his cover.
Plotting this story delays the expected. I get why this wants to create a foundation, but we've seen this story before, many times. The fist movie was a twist on the typical story structure as it was nearly one long fight, while this movie returns to a typical structure. There's not a sense of hopelessness like the first one. Part of that is that we've seen Rama beat incredible odds, but the other aspect to that is Uco's prevalence in this story. He's not that interesting.
There is a lot of story that makes this movie much longer than it needs to be. The last third of this is solid as it's mostly action. It's certainly a new level of brutal. The action is just as good if not better than the first one, but it takes some effort to get there. Since this story is so familiar, the movie could have spent a lot less time on it.
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