Rypro 525

nope, no linkin park score this time.

I think Gareth Evans now has enough clout with the success of the first movie to where if Sony said 'lets dub this into english' he could say no.

redrum

Absolutely incredible

I need the bluray right now

Bat + face

Everything

Solid Snake

I'm amazed the Cinemark near me has it. Had to drive 30 mile way for the first one. Now for the sequel? 3 miles. Awesome.

EdTheRipper

Definitely planning to catch this one sometime in the next week or two.

devilshalo

I think I have time to watch it again at my desk uninterrupted. Can't wait to see it with more detail on the big screen.

And going thru it again yesterday, I did not see the escalator scene. I thought that might have been Uco, but looking at his other scenes, that's not the case.

Why So Blu?

It looks like the son of the Japanese headmaster.

devilshalo

Doesn't look like him either, as he has some facial hair whereas the shooter doesn't.

It still amazes me at the length of this film, yet it goes by so quickly.

redrum

Yep doesn't feel long at all

Come on 4 hour directors cut bluray!

asianxcore

In an hour long Q&A I watched on YouTube, Evans said this cut of the film is his preferred cut.

What exactly was cut out of the film? I read it was just that big shootout scene, some execution scenes and a (long) single-take scene. The shootout scene is nuts, but now that I've seen the final product, I like the film without it.

I agree about the film not feeling long at all and I saw it twice.

Rypro 525

i do wonder how got past the MPAA. Then again there are probably a half a dozen moments where easily, the MPAA could of went to town & demanded cuts

Yavin

Yeah, this was an epic beat-em-up for the ages. Brutal and gory, with nothing held back. All the violence felt like it had a purpose, and it didn't get bogged down in the melodrama of the plot (which can get quite convoluted if you don't pay close attention).

Seeing as how this one saw a shift in the tone of Rama's character, I wonder what direction Evans and co. will take the series with The Raid 3 (which, apparently, is going to start before the end of the events in this film and then branch off along a different path)?

My full review is here.

Dan

The thing about the violent shots is that he doesn't linger on them. Fight ensues, dude's face gets fucked up, and before you can really take it in, the camera has moved onto the next blow. Only a few shots really held on the gore, and it was usually the the very end of a fight. Smart work, IMO.

The camera work, in general, was near perfect for these types of fight scenes. One shot where the camera flips upside down was great. It was the right move to make for the fluidity of the fight and then "rolls" back into the right position. Awesome stuff.

This needs to be on VOD. Now.

Julie Walker

I'm surprised this is playing at some mainstream theaters around here. So it'll be much easier to see the film. So I'm thinking of checking it out sometime next week on a day off. I'm pretty hyped for the film, but doing my best to keep my expectations in check. So I've avoided most spoilers and trailers and clips for the film.

I have not seen the original film with the original score yet. So I'm curious how does the score for the sequel sound? I did like the 'Linkin Park' score as some called it on the original. It reminded of of John Carpenter in spots and just had this cool sound to it. So a similar electronic score would be cool for the sequel. But either way, I hope I enjoy the film.

Solid Snake

Jesus Titty Fuckin' Christ.

That's what this film is.

It's amazingly epic in scope. It's a massive crime/action drama. More action than crime for sure. Honestly if it wasn't for the way Evans films his fights, you'd swear it was a different man directing this. He refined his camera work in the action. I thought it was fine before but he brought some class to it. The colors are so powerful as well. The action is so ramped up too. Bat Boy and Hammer Girl were very unique characters in this film. Without telling you, they just read as storied people. Very unique weaponry usuage and character interactions. Maybe I've forgotten the bit in the trailer but their last scene was wonderful. It was unexpected for me. Not a damn issue with any of the choreography or filming of it. It's Grade A action here, motherfuckers.

I'm not sure wtf some critics were saying but for all the crazy violence in here? It, like the last one, doesn't viually emphasize the horrific end results. You see the brutality all the way throughout but it doesn't shove into any gore fest imagery. It is very well used and controlled. We've seen greater emphasizing of gore in our horror films.

Unlike some others, I didn't find the find confusing at all. It just has a crime drama to follow between the kicking of ass.

Iko Uwais grew a lot as an actor. The whole cast was top notch in their acting. So much diversity in the looks and languages. Being a big fan of the first one I'm amazed at how different the guy that played Mad Dog played in here. I knew he was a different character as well but the whole nature of that character seperated itself so much from his precious Raid role.

I also loved the music. This film still had Trapanese involved and you can feel that. The first film had a very dirty and wild score with Trapanese and Shinoda. And it worked well for it cuz of where it was set. The Indonesian score was good too but had more atmospheric nature to it. Neither was bad but I preferred the American score on that one. This film's score, in matching more with its setting, has more oomph in it. It's a bit more expansive and direct. Just felt bigger in scope. This one has one score. Involving Trapanese and the Indonesian score guys from the last one. It's a very good combo. I hope we get a BD feature on their uniting on this one.

I loved this film and I can't wait to get the BD cuz the filmmaking is so crazy and inventive. Just amazing creativity.

Patman

I didn't see the first installment, but didn't find it to impede my understanding too much. It's your basic "cop goes deep cover to infiltrate the mob" story with Rama being the Indonesian cop that goes into prison to befriend a crime lord's son Uco to get the goods on whole mob.

The chaotic action scenes between the good guy and the bad guys is over-the-top and entertainingly so. The face-off scenes feature hand-to-hand, weapons, gunplay, aluminum bats, hammers, and lots of stuntwork too. A lot of scenes induced audible cringes from me from the damage being inflicted on each other. It's bloody and crazy, and does its genre proud.

But at 2.5 hours, it's too long in spots, with some minor characters getting side subplots that adds little to the overall narrative.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.

Why So Blu?

So it expanded to over 900 theaters and it only pulled in slightly over a million dollars do a per screen average of 1k per theater? My math sucks but is that accurate? Those aren't great numbers but I don't remember what the first one did. Part 2 will get my Blu-ray money, though!

asianxcore

Yayan Ruhian is great! He was also in 'Merantau' (2009) and played a character different than both Mad Dog & Prakoso as well.

I remember hearing on the 'Making Of' videos that Evans posted on his Vimeo, that for this film the FX/Make-Up Department colored Ruhian's hair and aged his skin.

Dan

I was itching to watch Merantau on Netflix last night, but it looks like it's no longer there.

Osiris3657

Saw this yesterday so I've had some time to let it digest. I did like it, but felt there was plenty of fat that could have been trimmed. There were too many scenes were I said to myself "what was the point of that". I honestly didn't care for the plot and dramatic scenes. For martial arts movies I go in with the mindset of just give me a basic plot to move the story from action set piece to action set piece. I'm not interested in a complex plot with betrayals and backstabbings (the figurative kind) for these type of movies.

That being said, the action was pretty sweet. The end fight with the dude who has those hooked knives was awesome. I'm really happy they didn't make that fight too long, like the one between Rama and Mad Dog in the 1st one.

I don't mind the action being over the top in these movies, but the baseball bat guy with his long range attack, as if he's a video game character, was really cheesy. "Can you give me the ball?"

All in all I had a good time. The action made up for the needlessly complex plot.

robin2099

This movie leaves me torn. On the one hand, I think the movie was over long at 2.5 hours which is something that I feared when I first heard about the run time. As a result, the movie kind of dragged somewhat. I also wasn't a fan of how some of the fight scenes were shot. The scene in the prison yard actually made me dizzy watching it.

On the other hand, holy hell was some of what they did amazing. The fight scene in the car, the chase scene down the highway, everything hammer girl did. The fights while almost over the top felt like they had some real weight to them and weren't just a lot of flash. Really everything after the war started knocked my socks off.

So yeah. Not really sure what I would rate this.

asianxcore

The child-like nature of both Hammer Girl & Baseball Bat Man were intentional by Evans.

He explains it in full (and how it relates to the final filmed product) this Q&A at the 5:55 mark.

I'm not saying you are wrong in your feelings about it feeling cheesy, just wanted to share some information about the conscious decisions for that character.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/pkLAva_IvtU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

slop101

I can't believe that fucktard would take his 7 year old to see that movie. Unbelievable.

Solid Snake

That's what I thought too.

The R action films I grew up with were wildly tame in comparison to The Raid films. Especially 2.

hanshotfirst1138

It's pretty amazing what you can get away with under an R-rating these days. Granted, they still censor you here and there, but these days, it just shows up on home video anyway. For all of the 80s Regan-era excess in those old action flicks, the MPAA were a lot more strict back then.

hanshotfirst1138

This movie must be what it's like if you do tons of cocaine while eating two dozen doughnuts and chasing it was a case of red-bull while watching youtube clips of HK fight scenes and splicing them in with The Godfather. It was insane. Too long, but pretty exhilarating in spots.