Summary
- The Raid is extremely violent, almost like a snuff film, with excessive gore and brutal deaths.
- The lack of a developed story hinders The Raid, focusing solely on relentless action over narrative.
- Characters lack depth, with Rama and his brother's relationship feeling unresolved and underdeveloped.
Iko Uwais, later appearing in The Expendables as well as a litany of other notable roles. Director Gareth Evans definitively proved himself as a careful action choreographer, crafting some of the most engaging fight scenes of the modern day martial arts genre while single-handedly popularizing the Indonesian martial art penack silat.
Fondly ed even 13 years later, The Raid: Redemption went on to inspire a sequel, The Raid 2, as well as a developing The Raid remake led by Michael Bay. That being said, there's plenty to criticize about The Raid: Redemption that only becomes more obvious once the adrenaline of the pulse-pounding Indonesian fight movie wears off from a first viewing. Famously, beloved film critic Roger Ebert went against the grain with a one-star review of the film, pointing out some inherent flaws that most critics of 2011 were too blinded by spectacle to notice.
'Expendables 3' Director Offers 'The Raid: Redemption' Remake Plot Details
Patrick Hughes (The Expendables 3) offers plot details for his remake of 'The Raid', which Hughes says won't recreate the original film 'beat for beat.'
10 The Raid Is Extremely Violent, Maybe Unnecessarily So
The martial arts masterpiece borders on snuff film at times
Compared to many other martial arts films, The Raid: Redemption is certainly not afraid to get its hands dirty. Almost bordering on a torture movie along the lines of Saw or The Collector at times, characters in The Raid take beatings like no other action characters. Blood and even bits of brain matter are prone to go flying at the slightest provocation, and while the dark lighting hides the worst of the carnage, the use of nasty improvised weaponry like machetes, axes, and hammers doesn't go unnoticed.
It's impossible to deny that the often superfluous visceral gore limits the broad appeal of what could've otherwise been a four-quadrant action movie.
Obviously, the violence of The Raid: Redemption is the primary appeal, so this is a mark in the film's favor for most who would be interested in watching in the first place. But it's impossible to deny that the often superfluous visceral gore limits the broad appeal of what could've otherwise been a four-quadrant action movie, keeping the slightly squeamish at the gate of entry. One drawn-out kill involving a broken tube light feels particularly out of place, demonstrating how the film seems to almost uncomfortably revel in the painful deaths of its villains.
9 The Raid Doesn't Have Much In The Way Of Story
Hardly an attempt is even made to give context to the action
Essentially a film consisting of one big fight scene, The Raid: Redemption is utterly relentless in its pursuit of action purity. Early on, it's made clear in no uncertain that the choreography and martial arts prowess on display are the real stars of the show, with any attempt at a narrative taking a distant backseat. Again, this isn't an issue for many of the fillm's most adamant fans, but it's hard to wonder what The Raid: Redemption could have been if more care had been put into this area.
The simple premise of a building filled to the brim with dangerous criminals is as much of a vehicle as the film's excellent stunt work and hand-to-hand fight scenes need to proceed, but The Raid: Redemption could've been so much more. Plenty of other films are able to balance action with genuinely compelling story telling, and choosing to outright abandon one for the sake of another always results in the feeling that something was left on the table. The Raid: Redemption is certainly a great action movie, but the right story could've elevated it to a true masterpiece.
8 The Explanation For The Inconsistent Use Of Firearms Is Weak
Overly-sadistic gang don't provide compelling arguements
The Raid: Redemption seems to be utterly trapped in its modern-day time period. The film desperately wants to get its characters to engage in hand-to-hand combat, but must first circumvent the reality that most real-life gang fights in the current age are fought with guns rather than fists and blades. The Raid certainly has its fair share of gun battles, but when the film wants its characters to disregard efficiency for the sake of flashy melee combat, the explanations don't always stack up.
Sometimes, the bloodthirsty preferences of the gang are the only excuses given as to why guns aren't used. One fighter even directly says as much, going as far as to remark "Squeezing a trigger? That's like ordering takeout." On the law's side, the drawn-out fights and convenient lack of backup are the primary justification needed to artificially generate the circumstances needed for a series of increasingly unbelievable hand-to-hand duels.
7 Some Of The Battle Tactics Make No Sense
Strategy wasn't high on the minds of The Raid's leaders
Though Rama may be one of Iko Uwais' best martial arts roles, he isn't exactly the leader of his unit, much to the dismay of their overall tactical efficiency. That honor instead goes to Joe Taslim's Lieutenant Taka, who makes the confounding decision to dive head-first into the battle by setting up the bloody raid in the first place, all the while sporting a bright-colored sports shirt sure to make him a sitting for Tama's marksmen. But it's Tama himself who makes some of the biggest tactical blunders in the film.
Upon getting tipped off that the titular raid was coming, Tama's response was to board himself up on the top floor, simply allowing the police to slowly encroach upon his territory rather than mount an active assault or retreat. This sort of video game logic is handwaved by The Raid: Redemption, and gets harder to ignore after the honeymoon phase of a first viewing. Tama only does this so that he can be a "boss encounter" at the end of the film, breaking all semblance of logic to follow the structure of the film's rising action.
6 The Raid Falls Victim To "One At A Time" Group Fights
Rama's nameless enemies fall prey to a classic movie henchman trope
The everyman police hero is able to tear through legions of gangsters like they're nothing, coming out on top despite all odds being stacked against him.
Rama is undeniably one of the greatest fighters to ever grace the screen of a modern-day action film. The everyman police hero is able to tear through legions of gangsters like they're nothing, coming out on top despite all odds being stacked against him. That being said, the lean choreography and impressive physicality of the actors are undermined by an irritating martial arts movie trope that keeps things the odds in Rama's favor.
Frequently, Rama finds himself facing a horde of opponents that wind up facing him one at a time, rather than dogpiling him all at once. Just as he's finished with one goon, another will have just been ready to round the corner, supplying him with a steady stream of faceless jobbers to put the hurt on. For as smart as The Raid: Redemption is with its fight scenes in most regards, it can't seem to help itself from falling prey to this particular trope with at least occasional regularity.
5 The Raid's Characters Are Undeveloped
Rama and company are little more than their fists
Even if many others of the greatest action films have similarly bare-bones stories, like The Raid: Redemption, there's one category other straightforward fighting films are able to nail that Gareth Evans' bone-crunching romp isn't able to nail. That is, the characters of The Raid are woefully undeveloped, even by action movie standards. For as threadbare as the stories of their respective films may be, action heroes like Die Hard's John McCLane or John Wick do at least have readable personalities.
Meanwhile, Rama and his cohorts have strikingly little character traits to offer audiences to latch on to beyond being great fighters. Wordless scenes of Rama's practice of Islam or his pregnant wife vaguely touch on more interesting aspects of his character, but these threads are left hanging so that the action can once again resume. With little personality at play beyond "stoic lawman" or "violent gangster", it's hard to assert that the characters of The Raid: Redemption are particularly memorable.
4 Rama And His Brother Both Walk Away
It's hard to feel satisfied by the resolution of Rama and Andi's story
One of the biggest narrative cruxes The Raid: Redemption does decide to inject into its action-packed runtime is the sudden introduction of Rama's long-lost brother, Andi. Andi is revealed to have diverged paths with his brother long ago, having taken to the life of a criminal without any intention of giving up any time soon. He says as much when he and Rama part ways just after reuniting for the first time in years, quickly leaving each other in the carnage of the raid.
The Raid 2 reveals that Andi dies not soon after the events of the first film.
Rama and Andi wind up forming a brief alliance, taking down the notorious gangster Mad Dog in a tag team fight. Yet by the time the credits roll, Andi and Rama are no closer to reconciling or facing each other. It's hard not to feel like the familial sub-plot doesn't wind up going anywhere, with visions of a climactic confrontation between siblings or the ultimate rehabilitation of Andi thrown out the window in favor of a sequel tease. To make matters worse, The Raid 2 reveals that Andi dies not soon after the events of the first film.
3 The Localization Isn't The Best
For having a Welsh director, The Raid has yet to be optimized for English
The Raid: Redemption has a strange status as a foreign language film by an English-speaking director, Gareth Evans, who wisely made the decision to base the film in the language native to his stars. The cast all turn in solid enough performances, but the options for translation seem to have left much to be desired. Ading the gap between cultural differences and language translation with localization is never easy, but none of the options for The Raid: Redemption present dialogue that's entirely natural-sounding in English.
Many of the final lines provided by both subtitles and dubbed-over performances in The Raid: Redemption can't help but feel poorly translated. Depending on the version of the film, nonsensical dialogue is commonplace. This ranges from Rama's prayer turning into "You need to rest because of both" with no further context to Jaka describing Mad Dog as an "Enthusiast that using a fist and feet that broke the walls of his master." The Raid: Redemption's translation sorely needs another .
2 Characters' Toughness Breaks Suspension Of Disbelief
The Raid might as well be filled with superhumans
The bloody spectacle of The Raid: Redemption is amplified by some astounding injuries. The rate at which characters in the film are able to shrug off grievous wounds and jump back into the fray is nothing short of mind-blowing, often veering into the realm of impossibility. The sheer surrender of suspension of disbelief the otherwise grounded and gritty film asks when showing off these horrific injuries, ultimately amounting to nothing, is sometimes nearly enough to remove the viewer from the experience entirely.
By far the most egregious example is the perseverance of Mad Dog in his final fight, in which he's given a wince-inducing stab to the neck with an improvised weapon that's left to simply fester and bleed out. The wound ends up being little more than an annoyance for the mythically tough gangster, who continues to fight with a literal piece of shrapnel sticking out of his carotid artery. He's far from the only one to exhibit superhuman levels of endurance, as Rama himself continues to fight for hours despite injuries that would put a mere mortal out of commission.
1 The Raid's Editing Pace Isn't For The Faint At Heart
The film walks a thin line between fast-paced and overwhelming
In any good action movie, the editing of the fight scenes becomes just as much of a participant as the actors, stunt performers, and camera, guiding the eye through flurries of blows. The Raid: Redemption certainly thrives on this principle, but can't help but build momentum to its own detriment at times. The blistering pace of the combat in The Raid occasionally gets outpaced by the frequency of cuts.
In the modern day of superhero movies with inflated numbers of cuts for even simple action sequences, efforts of martial arts films with far more deliberate shot-by-shot blocking deserve more attention. Despite The Raid: Redemption actually inspiring superhero fights, the film seems to have also taken some of their worst habits when it comes to editing, flinging split-second images of smashed skulls and broken bones whizzing past viewers before they can comprehend it. This means that it's tragically easy to lose some of the meticulous detail of The Raid: Redemption's best fight scenes.
The Raid: Redemption
- Release Date
- March 23, 2012
- Runtime
- 101 minutes
- Director
- Gareth Evans
Cast
Iko UwaisRama
Joe TaslimJaka
WHERE TO WATCH
The Raid, released in 2012, follows an elite SWAT team as they attempt to infiltrate a fortified apartment block in Jakarta to apprehend a notorious drug lord. Led by martial arts star Iko Uwais, the team faces relentless adversaries in a battle for survival after their cover is blown.
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