Rating: 18
Duration: 101 mins
Poetry; Oldboy; I Saw The Devil;
Confessions; all critically acclaimed films from Asia
(South Korea and Japan, respectively) reveal the largely untapped, high-quality
available on import, and whilst the aforementioned have received critical
praise, they've seldom managed to penetrate the British market; losing out
to mainstream success of western
counterparts.
2012 sees Indonesian cinema enter the
multiplex more prominently, as Welsh-born Gareth Evans helms this hotly tipped
actioner that's already succumbed to enormous hype prior to release. The Raid doesn't tick every box, but in regards to thrill,
action and adrenaline rush, it does so in an accomplished manner -- Evans has
crafted one of the most exhilarating and pulsating genre flicks of recent
times. With Iko Uwais as his lead (a talent he's worked with before on
sophomore film Merantau), The
Raid sustains continual engagement with the deeper elements left
undeveloped such as character and plot.
Such oversights are
forgivable in an exhibition of clinical fight scene after fight scene, as each
one continues to raise the bar from the previous in both spectacle and
tension. However, after we're privy to the initial intensity of shootouts
and fistycuffs, the rest follow suit in formulaic fashion
without deriving from their sole purpose to thrill with the explosive
nature of martial arts -- especially when it's done this well.
Well-paced, choreographed
stunts bare the core of its incomplex storyline with some bone-crunching
battles; it's fair to proclaim the Evans/Uwais combo works a treat, and all
without the requirement of a gimmicky 3D conversion, too.
