Full disclosure: Despite it cribbing liberally from Bruce Lee’s GAME OF DEATH, I genuinely liked the first RAID film. I thought the action was kept brisk and inventive and it never infringed on the audience’s sense of believability. Sadly… the sequel, RAID 2: BERANDAL is none of those things. Overly-long and unduly complicated, the film – at 2.5 hours – overstays its welcome early on and makes the poor decision to “back-load” the film with action (i.e., they put all of the cool shit at the end). Acting is wooden and why anyone thought to convince lead Iko Uwais that he could hold and control a scene is clearly crazy. There are 4 reasons to see RAID 2 (and to avoid spoilers, I’ll be cryptic): the hammer… the kitchen… the car chase... and the hallway with the twins. These scenes crackle with energy and inventive use of environment and martial arts. The real problem with the film though is that it regresses to a point that it trots out “martial arts movie tropes’ by the bunches. Lone hero who needs to infiltrate the mob? Check! Young mobsters son desires his time on the thrown? Check! Potential attackers patiently waiting for their turn to get their asses kicked? Check! A hero that takes unbelievable amounts of damage only to rally at the end? Check! There is also a HUGE problem (for me at least) in one of the aforementioned scenes (in the kitchen). The scene makes use of a traditional curved blade called a Karambit, The weapon is one of the most imposing hand-held weapons this writer has ever seen. And SOMEHOW… they manage to make one of the most boring (and improbable) scenes EVER. Now, I’m still VERY interested in the future work of director Gareth Evans and martial artists Iko Uwais, and Yayan Ruhian. I just think they need to invest in a screenwriter who is every bit as inventive as their action team is.
Skip the clichés, boys… and kick some ass.
2.75 out of 5 stars
~ Thom Carnell
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