Raid 2: Berandal (2014)

Raid 2: Berandal (2014) by Rob Milarvie

Dir: Gareth Huw Evans

Exhilarating, Extraordinary and absolutely Exhausting.

Gareth Evans’ new Indonesian martial arts thriller is a sequel to The Raid released in 2011, a plot revolving around a S.W.A.T team infiltrating a dilapidated fortress with a gang lord running criminal operations from its helm. But of course, things go wrong, very quickly. As it may, this new instalment by the Welshman takes place only a matter of hours after the first. With the ramifications altering the now at peace Rama (Iko Uwais) our protagonist, who now has to go undercover for the safety of his family, and discover all the corrupt police officers feeding information to criminal figureheads. Now enduring the exhaustion and haunts from the infamous ‘Raid’, is to now to be set upon a whole new set of elite fighting psychopaths to set an ultimate battle for Rama to face.

The simplicity of the first feature was its ultimate strength, with a Die Hard like narrative. This difficulty for its sequel was the expansion aspect, geographically so, from one monolithic tower block to entire criminal underground network. However, Evans matched the task at hand with a finer polished cinematography coupled with more raucous and intense choreographed fight sequences. It’s relentless nature of being in one exhaustive fight sequence to the next with droplets of narrative structure being placed throughout simply added to the cinematic pleasure of Raid 2.

Finally, the awesome and intensified pace Evans has employed in this feature will almost certainly have audiences screeching through its violence, perspiring through its paranoia and cheering through its triumphant martial art sequences.

It will be very interesting where Evans takes this franchise in its final instalment, which may not be released for a few more years, but certainly Raid 2 has set the stall for what action movies should be and paved the way for an incredible sequel.