Movie Review: The Raid - Redemption

It was not that long ago that I first heard of The Raid: Redemption. There was a lot of positive surrounding  the Indonesian action film with the majority praising its extensive action sequences and impressive fight choreography. On the other side of the coin, there was definitely some negativity surrounding its lack of story and character development. I know that story and character are very important pieces of the medium, but at the same time there is always room for a more pure genre exercise. This one definitely falls within that genre exercise tag. It is almost a 90-minute action sequence.



There is a slim story laid out to get you into the movie and enough development to make you interested in a couple of the characters. Still, it is so much lip service to get you from point A to point everyone gets the snot beat out of them. While this may be a problem for some, I am not one of them. This is a pure action movie. It is all about the execution of the violence. Where some see repetitive fights and shootouts with little else to cling to, the genre fan, however, sees some inventively vicious fights, a team of talented martial artists and stuntmen, and a nice build from the initial blows to the final showdown. The story is of little consequence when the orchestra of fists play this well.

The story, such as it is, finds a police tactical unit going into an apartment building that is controlled by a powerful crime boss. It is a building that has long been a no-go zone for the police and has been  battleground for other crime families who have tried to take over. This does seem to be odd timing for the police invasion, some of them wondering "why now?" Whatever truth will be revealed, there is plenty of fighting to be had.

The police enter the building and quietly begin to take control, floor by floor. The last thing they want is for word to get to the boss and him to unleash his attack forces. Well, floor six proves to be a sticking point as they are spotted and the alarm is triggered. The crime boss locks the building down, let's the police knows his building is being attacked, and promptly puts a bounty on the heads of the police infestation. This leads to an outpouring of bounty hunters seeking to take down some cops.

That is about all there is. On the character side of the coin we first meet our hero, Rama (Iko Uwais), leaving his pregnant wife and going off to work. There is also a vow to bring someone home. Finally, the guy in charge of the invasion might know more than he is letting on.

All right, with the story bits out of the way, sit back and enjoy some great fights and large amounts of violence. Now, it is hard to discuss this without using words that can get you all excited for it, the last thing I want to do is hype it up too much for you. I know what overhype can to expectations.

Let's just say that once the guns run out of bullets, there is a steady stream of inventively choreographed fights. There are some really hardcore fights and it does not look like anyone is pulling any punches.

What it simply comes down to is if you like action movies, you need to see this. Yes, it is subtitled, but there is about 5 pages worth of dialogue in the whole thing, so don't let that get you down.

Highly Recommended.