Action-Adventure The Raid 2: Berandal

[CapedCrusader14]

Seeing this in a couple hours, so damn pumped.

 

[kguillou]

Can't wait to hear your thoughts dude!

 

[CapedCrusader14]

Can't wait to hear your thoughts dude!

Well here goes.

This film escalates and improves in every single way you can imagine over the first film; action, cinematography, acting, writing, story, character development etc etc, you name it, it's better. Any action film fan requires this on their viewing list before they die. Seriously. This is a master class in action films, and a damn fine film in its own right. The story was way more engaging than the first film in just about every way, and it is the best film I've seen in 2014 so far. Bravo Mr Gareth Evans, you should be proud for creating this violent bloodbath feast.

A big 4.5/5 from me, almost a perfect film.

 

[The Chris]

I feel like this will be my new example to use when my friends mention a movie's rotten tomatoes rating, because if this isnt better than the first one for a lot of oeople who have seen it than it is just as good. There's too much of a gap between the two on there.

 

[CapedCrusader14]

I feel like this will be my new example to use when my friends mention a movie's rotten tomatoes rating, because if this isnt better than the first one for a lot of oeople who have seen it than it is just as good. There's too much of a gap between the two on there.

That RT rating is a complete disservice to this film.

It was strange when someone right in front of me left the theater with roughly 3 minutes left. What was the point of doing that random dude? Violence too much for him so he decided to leave with only 3 minutes left?

 

[addison81]

What's the best action scene in this?

 

[Liam_H]

Hard to choose but I certainly have a top three in no certain order: car chase, Rama vs Hammer Girl/Bat Boy, and Rama vs "The Assassin".

All three have elements that make them unique. Also a special mention to the prison mud fight cause that must have been pretty hard to film.

 

[addison81]

That's what I guessed the best would be. Can't wait to see this.

 

[CapedCrusader14]

I would pick the Prison Mud Pit Fight, Car Chase and a tie between all the final fights.

 

[The Chris]

Yeah those final fights were spectacular, and these performers really give their all in those scenes. Evans is a spectacular director. So many directors do a disservice to their stunt performers with how they shoot and edit their work but Evans' work is as inventive, imaginitive, and brutally beautiful as theirs. The things they do with the camera in this film made me absolutely speechless. This is some of the most artistically beautiful brutality i've ever seen.

 

[CapedCrusader14]

There were moments during the film (especially the car chase) where I couldn't help but think "How did they achieve THAT?", what a beautifully shot film.

 

[kguillou]

For me the best fight was Rama vs Bat Boy and Hammer Girl. It was just so.damn.good. and my audience roared with applause when that battle was done.

 

[addison81]

This had the highest per screen average this weekend in a couple theaters.

 

[Ajendo]

I'm in the UK, London to be exact and I get to see this tomorrow evening. My body is nowhere near ready to take all if this in. I've just calmed down from the awesomeness if the new cap movie and now this, I'm not ready but bring it anyway!

 

[sapiontel]

Im going to watch it again tommorow..

This movie, seriously still the best action-fighting movie i have ever seen in 5 years.

The unforgottable scenes was:
- fight scene in the small dead-end toilet vs 30 prisoners
- prison riot (iko said it took 9 days to complete this scene)
- car chase
- last fight in the kitchen!! It's totally INSANE!!! The best fight scene all the time!!! it still remains in my mind till now. Haha..I remember the audiences gave a big applause for this scene.

Apparently evans just released the deleted scenes in youtube. Just search: the raid 2 "gang war"

THE RAID 2
imdb score: 88/100

Can't wait for the third

 

[Ajendo]

I'm doing myself a favour of not watching any more footage, deleted or otherwise until after tomorrow.

 

[MrsCalculator]

Before watching The Raid 2 you should check out this video which sums up every single kick, punch, shot and kill in The Raid 1 in just 3 min!
[YT]http://youtu.be/_vB-hngwQ-w[/YT]

I haven't seen The Raid 2 yet, but if it beats this I'm pretty impressed! What's your thoughts on it? Does it have more action than The Raid 1?

 

[CapedCrusader14]

I can't really comprehend comparing if there was more action, I'll have to do that when I see it again some day. But it is certainly filled with more quiet moments than the first because of the 2 hour 30 minute run time, while the first film is more relentless due to its story and run time filling it with less quiet moments than The Raid 2.

 

[Kane52630]

 

[CapedCrusader14]

Damn I really want to see this again.

 

[kguillou]

I want to own this on blu ray already.

 

[sapiontel]

I want to own this on blu ray already.

I read in evan's tweet.. the original uncut version was 2:45 hours..

Hopefully ,the blueray version will include it all

 

[Daywalker89]

So saw this tonight and it was brutal just pure adrenaline and beautifully shot. The last fight scene left me gasping. The amount of rage and adrenaline that kicked in with that hard charging score...man . I felt to scream at the screen. My body wanted to join in lol

The baseball guy and hammer girl was crazy and also the prison riot 3 stand out fight scenes(filming that needs deserves a bow). It had some great acting from the cast to bring along the story (even if it was abit linear) The score was a stand out for me aswell. It had the right balance from tense,emotional,engaging,hard pumping and dramatic.

The main negative was the shakky cam. i know they want to convey how fast these guys are but damn they needed to tone it down abit. Apart from that i had a great time films like these are hard to pulloff and are rare from those typical high budget action fests, R2 has raised the bar again. 8.5/10

 

[Keyser Soze]

My timing for seeing THE RAID 2 is quite funny, as this has been one of my most anticipated movies for so long - pretty much ever since I saw the first film - and then just a few days ago CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER blew me away, and left me talking about how I couldn't imagine a more rewarding action movie being released this year. All of a sudden THE RAID 2 had even bigger expectations to meet: could it match my newly-christened "best action movie of 2014" less than a week after I saw it, with that film still playing over in my mind? And if so, was my body ready for such a concentrated double-dose of awesome? The answers are "yes," and "I'm not sure."

I staggered out of the cinema after seeing THE RAID 2 a gleeful, gibbering wreck, actually shaking and sweating like I'd been on a roller-coaster ride. This isn't just a film, it's an experience. And it was a remarkable shared experience in the cinema, too, with the crowd bursting into applause not just at the end of the film, but several times during it. It was just as much of an adrenaline-pumping experience as catching THE RAID for the first time at Glasgow Frightfest.

And how does this compare to THE RAID? While it lacks the original's relentlessly-paced, streamlined purity of narrative purpose, it more than makes up for it with scope and ambition. If writer/director/editor Gareth Evans (who if it wasn't for genre snobbery would already be getting widely hailed as entering auteur territory with his masterful work here) had opted to just do a sequel set in a different tower block, or padded out the first act - with Rama undercover in a violent prison - to feature length, simply replicating the highly successful siege format of the first film on a bigger budget, he could have provided a crowd-pleaser to make fans of the first film happy. But he wasn't content to do that. Instead, this sequel explodes out the mythology of the film into an expansive epic, making the small, contained world of THE RAID's tower block but one tiny cog in a labyrinthine underworld status quo. Tasked with infiltrating this vast criminal network, the first film's protagonist Rama is thrust into an epic crime saga, a tale spanning years that give us enough tragedy, betrayal and suspense to rank it up there with the narrative of INFERNAL AFFAIRS. And while THE RAID was ultimately a one-man show for Rama, here Iko Uwais' Rama is but one of an ensemble of fascinating characters. And there's some great acting in here too, particularly from Arifin Putra as Uco, resentful son of chief gangster Bangun. The biggest compliment I can give the gripping narrative at the heart of THE RAID 2 is that even if you took the blistering action out, it would stand on its own as a great crime movie.

But thankfully, that's not the case. Because while THE RAID 2 may have upped the scale (and the runtime, now clocking at 2 and a half hours!), and made for a film that isn't as constantly breakneck in pace as its predecessor, when the action does come, it's just as hard-hitting, bone-crunching and wince-inducing as we remember. If anything, the action is even better, the inventiveness and experimentation taken to a whole new level. You'll gasp with delight as Rama has a frenzied close-quarter battle against multiple opponents in a toilet cubicle. You'll just about fall out of your seat when he repeats the same trick later in the film, only this time in a car speeding down a busy freeway. The whole car chase sequence in general is astounding, causing the kind of imaginatively-arranged destruction of vehicles that the film's other battles inflict on the human body: probably the most thrilling such setpiece in at least a decade. The prison riot near the beginning is just crazy, and would be the standout action scene of most films/years, but then the film keeps on topping it. A climactic showdown in a kitchen is perhaps the single best fight scene I've ever seen in a movie. Bloodthirsty admirers of the first film's carnage may require a little more patience with intricate plotting this time round, but by the time we roll into the last 45 minutes of the film you'll have your gory appetites more than sated! And if the first film didn't already christen him as such, let us now all hail Iko Uwais as the new king of action movie stars.

I walked in wondering if THE RAID 2 could top the excellent CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER. It does. In fact, I walked out having come to the conclusion that it topped THE WOLF OF WALL STREET. Yes, THE RAID 2 has shot right to the top of my list as Best Film of 2014, and if any other film dethrones it, I'll be very shocked indeed.

 

[kguillou]

Glad u loved it Soze. I think you summarized it perfectly by saying that this film is an experience. It feels like a rollercoaster ride that leaves you exhilirated and exhausted but in good way. I remember right before the Rama fights Baseball Boy and Hammer Girl i had to take of my sweater and prepare myself physically for what I was about to witness. My body was NOT ready and i left the theater in sweat. Thats the sign of an amazing film right there.