THE RAID - REDMEPTION, Carlisle's Final Word

 "Pulling a trigger is like ordering a takeout."

Mad Dog.

Half circle down-to-forward and 'square' unleashes a Fire Ball.

Synopsis;

The Raid (or, The Raid Redemption as it’s also known) is the second film by Welsh (Welsh???) director Gareth Evans- an explosive Indonesian action movie.

A 20-man elite unit is sent on mission to eliminate a notorious criminal king-pin held up on the top floor of an apartment block which serves as his own personal fortress. Amongst the unit are the experienced Sergeant Jaka and young rookie Officer Rama- who also happens to be a master in the deadly art of Pencak Silat. This is a useful thing to know because (as you can probably imagine) the raid quickly goes catastrophically wrong. The surviving members of the team are then forced into a brutal game of survival while being hunted down by the king-pin's ruthless henchmen.

Script Logic; 0/2

There isn't really any logic to the script, but does it matter? The film is hoping you'll be too caught-up in the action to really care for the plot-holes. How did (spoilers ahead) a corrupt Lieutenant manage to deploy an entire armored unit without the proper authority or expecting his superiors not to notice? How was the unit even assembled without the proper documentation and warrants? Not a bother. Such a disregard for realism is ballsy if nothing else.

Pace; 1/2

Well, the film starts off at a run and doesn't really let-up. I was almost going to award the film 2/2 for this, but a perfect score has to be withheld for a perfect pace, and many of the films individual action scenes are overly-long- especially the final three-way battle, clocking in at over 8 minutes, I was ready for this clash to finish by the halfway point...

Acting; 1/2

Again, it's not really an 'actors piece'.  I mean, they have little to do besides grunt and fight, and the only concession to character building before the action starts is 30 seconds spent establishing that 1; the hero's wife is pregnant, and 2; he's pretty good in the gym. Still, that's all you need, and the film spends very little time concerning itself with minor details like character development. Only Joe Taslim, as the squad's experienced Sergeant, manages to bring any pathos or credibility to his time on screen- everyone else appears to be on strict instruction to ham-it-up.

Aesthetic; 2/2

The sets are suitably grungy and foreboding, so nothing really to report in that respect. However, the real aesthetic here is the martial arts. The Raid works largely as a showcase for Pencak Silat- a fast and fierce Indonesian martial art, almost like a bastard hybrid of Wushu and cage-fighting. There’s no denying that Pencak Silat is impressive, and up on the screen it makes for some breathtakingly athletic scenes- any fan of martial arts or action cinema is going to enjoy seeing this previously under-exploited form , and I’d put money on us seeing it a lot more from now on.

I guess my only complaint with the style, if any (or perhaps this is a failing of the film / director rather than the style), is that I felt like I was continually seeing the same few moves over and over again. It took me a while to notice this, but I found myself by the start of act 3 thinking “seen that, seen that, seen that”- like watching a computer game. I realise that criticism sounds a little harsh, but it’s probably a result of the individual action sequences being over-played. I feel that shorter (and as a result more intense) fights would have gone a long way to preventing this strong sense of Déjà vu. It's as though director Gareth Evans was so excited to 'strut his stuff' that he didn't hold anything back for later encounters.

Regarding a more personal and petty gripe- if I'm watching an 18-rated film with a fight including machetes, I WANT to see someone HIT with a machete! Still, kudos for the inventive door-frame related death, that was suitably grim.

Originality & Intention; 2/2

Well, like what was said during my review of Dredd, it hardly matters that the plot has been done before- is the same story that both Howard Hawks and John Carpenter used to tell so well.  In an odd twist of fate The Raid and Dredd (both of which shared a wincingly similar idea) were released almost simultaneously. It was easy to see why many people suspected subterfuge or breach of intellectual property, but I think in all honesty it was just an instance of cosmic-chance- and one that was disastrous for Dredd which most people compared unfavorably to The Raid. The Raid did good business and was quickly picked up for a sequel (coming soon) while the planned Dredd trilogy was shelved (although it found a new lease of life on DVD).

Admirably, The Raid set out and achieved exactly what it meant to do, and waved an unforgiving anarchic middle finger to everyone else in the process.

Final Score; 6/10 

OK, let’s not kid ourselves here; The Raid is all about the action, and on that score alone The Raid is most certainly a success and it’s easy to see why action-junkies lapped this up. The Raid was never meant to be anything else other than 100 minutes of bone-crunching action scenes. Anyone looking for anything other than this is going to leave disappointment.

“So, why the low score?” you may well ask. Is it possible that my rating system does The Raid a disservice? Well, no, for the simple reason it’s more than possible to have this level of action with a better plot, better acting, and a better pace, etc. Providing the fun stuff doesn’t have to be at the expense of rich storytelling. But I digress, and the entire reason for breaking the review down into separate scores is purely so people can read about the aspects that interest them the most and disregard the rest. I'll be honest, I got bored, but I do appreciate that as a bloodthirsty teenager this would have been right-up-my-street...

Interesting little fact; Yayan Ruhian, who played Mad Dog (the crime lord's diminutive but deadly bodyguard and only memorable bad guy), was once responsible for training Pencak Silat to the Indonesian Presidential Security Forces and the Indonesian Military Police... True.