The first film just doesn’t stop, whilst the second can get a little boring between fights.īut I’m not convinced my opinion is enough! After all, these are very different films when you consider the general unfolding and story telling style. The fresh new feeling of the second makes me want to watch it more, but my personal opinion leans toward the constant suspense and action of the first. The Raid 2 wins on bad guys but Mad Dog is still an unforgettable character.
That’s a big strength that this film has over the first.įinally, The Assassin, is a guy with incredible Silat skills that match Rama’s – the fight between Rama and the Assassin is without a doubt the very best of the film and should go down as an all time classic fight scene. With the storyline and ‘lack of action’ (so to speak! this film is still packed) you get this finale – it coudn’t have been built up in such a successful way without it. It’s a martial artist’s dream to see this kind of action that is both extremely hard hitting and shows a mastery of body mechanics and fight science whilst still delivering that adrenaline rush. The fights themselves are more inventive, make use of more interesting weapons (touch on that later) and bring a new level of speed and complexity to the movement. This film had a finale that overshadows the first film’s due to the line up of characters and the level of fighting they bring to the screen. Afterall, I just knew there’d be a finale to die for – and there was! It didn’t seem as urgent or necessary as the fighting the first film – I prefer the first Raid in that aspect.Īs I watched the film I grew more convinced that I liked the original much more, but I hadn’t made up my mind yet. In this film it was kind of like “here’s some bad guys, let’s fight ’em” on many occasions. In the first film you were with them everystep of the way and knew they were surrounded by constant threat. The action is just as good technically, but it seemed to pop up almost randomly at times and I found I wasn’t as invested in the characters as in the first film. But I will put forward some personal opinion here… This film has as much, if not more, action than the first. So that’s the first comparison in the question – pace & suspense vs a more in depth story. This is due to the claustrohobic setting being exchanged for the larger outside world and we get to explore the universe of ‘The Raid’ a little more deeply. So we end up losing a lot of pace in order to be told the story behind The Raid 2. The biggest differences between this film and the first start with the overall concept – the constant threat around every corner and high sense of danger is diminished and exchanged for an intriguing plot. We watch things unfold as he gains their trust but also watch as the son of this criminal empire slowly plans his takeover. So what we get is a story line as we watch Rama penetrate into the organization in befriend it’s most powerful members. Rama goes undercover after the events of the first film to bring down the bigger dogs who have had their attention turned to the tower after it being shut down by him and his team. Sure the action is frequent, intense and to some degree there is a constant sense of danger – but it’s vastly different from the first.
( You can read my review of the first Raid here or grab a copy online to watch. No escape, no outside world, just condensed environment for intense fighting and death. It’s a single setting with constant threat and crazy action. You’re glued to the screen because of this suspense which is backed up with severe violence and an intense level of action that has never before been matched in a martial arts film. Any second you can expect a machete wielding maniac to fly around the corner and see some intense action. Once in, things go wrong and we spend the entire film inside this building, with a sense of entrapment and constant danger.
The movie kick starts with a single storyline, a group of SWAT guys (including the main character Rama – Iko Uwais) storming a dangerous building to take down the crime boss. I can’t wait to see what the third movie has to offer (especially since I heard the rumor that Scott Adkins was possibly going to make an appearance). These films, although very similar in the most important aspects – action, intensity and and general grittiness, they are quite different and stand together quite well. With the first being little over and hour and half, I knew this film was going to be different than the first, not just longer. I read the back cover – 2 and half hours! Holy shit, that’s a long martial arts movie.