Yeah. It's kind of off-topic, but I always find it interesting when non-English-speaking films have a few lines of English thrown in. They're usually spoken fairly poorly (usually over-acted specifically, IMO), and can sometimes bring the movie to a halt. I think the fact that Gareth Evans' first language is English helped in this particular case.

That said, Arifin Putra's English was practically perfect, and his acting in that moment (and throughout most of the film) was spot-on. Dude has potential to "make it big" in America if he's offered the right part.
He's got better screen presence than Iko Uwais, who is a GREAT fighter, but maybe lacks a bit in the acting department.

Just got back from seeing this. Loved it. If it was still playing at my theater next week, I'd see it again. The action sequences were all amazing and definitely warrant another viewing.

When I saw the film the second time I could hear lots of folks gasping and saying "whoa" when he started speaking perfect English.

That scene was definitely jarring.

For me, both times I saw it, it was more like, "Where the hell are the subti-- oh."

I kind of wonder what it's like for Evans to direct in a second language.

He lives in Indonesia and I'm assuming he can speak the language.

And he's married to an Indonesian woman.

What an excellent follow-up. A bit more of story, a bit more room to breathe, and just some cool fighting sequences again. Loved this one.

So I'm still trying to figure out where the extra 2 minutes are in this uncensored version. For those that have seen the theatrical cut....



I need to see this in the theater.

Yep, that was in the theatrical version.

And I was certainly shocked to see it.

That was actually the most ridiculous scene for me. Didn't ever expect that.

Finally saw this tonight and I gotta say I was very disappointed. Yes, the action was impressive(when it didn't go overboard with that jerk-camera effect that Ridley Scott seems to love to employ so much) but the story was an underwritten, overplotted mess and Iko Uwais was simply out of his depth as an actor here. The first film was like a shot of adrenaline, lean and mean. This one wants to be a crime epic. That's fine and good, I like that it went in a different direction, but the writing simply didn't live up to the film's ambition nor did the story offer anything we hadn't seen a million times already in films of this genre. The pacing is erratic at times, especially in the first 1/3rd, and sluggish. It takes almost an hour for it to find its groove. The Assassin wasn't set up as a threat as effectively as he should have and that whole fight scene at the club was just ridiculous and should've been left out altogether. Mad Dog 2.0, as I call him, was a thankless wasted character and could've been cut as well. I'll probably see it again once it hits video to see if I still feel the same way about my misgivings but right now I feel let down.

Agreed. One of my thoughts when leaving the theater.

Finally watched this today before it left theaters, and came away a little disappointed too. My feelings are pretty close to EctoCooler's above; I watched the first movie on Blu-ray just a few days ago with the girlfriend since she hadn't seen it before, so it was fresh on my mind when I went to see this one.

I disliked the overall story; I appreciate that it was different from the first movie and more of a crime thriller, but it felt overly complicated with a bunch of characters that felt under developed altogether. Using the same actor that played Mad Dog mentioned above was a big complaint, and I think his role either should have been played by someone else or removed completely. The characters that I did enjoy, like Hammer Girl and the Bay guy weren't used enough, and I wish they along with the other guy Rama fights at the end were introduced earlier and set up as bigger threats along with Bejo. I didn't find the 2 and a half hours long at all, but it still didn't feel like enough time to balance the characters I actually enjoyed, like Uco and Eka. Not to mention I could have done without the typical son taking power from the father story.

I enjoyed the action, and there was some great camera work throughout, but I thought the movie lacked the intensity and suspense of the first movie as well. Plenty of brutality, and some great fights to end the movie with, but I was less pumped compared to the Rama/Alix/Mad Dog fight in the first movie. I also didn't care for those few camera speed up moments. They were a bit jarring for me and took me out of the action a little bit.

Overall, i'm mixed. I liked the movie overall, but couldn't help be a little disappointed after the hype and how much I loved the first.

Loved the first movie. Was not disappointed by the follow-up at all. What a change of direction. Yes, it was heavily plotted with a few too many characters, but I appreciate that ambition. It felt very epic to me. The fight scenes were, of course, just incredible. What a great pair of films.

That GIF was posted earlier in the thread, but that's okay because it's fucking awesome.

That chase scene was terrific.

Evans was WILDLY ingenuitive with this sequel. Ain't no way some American director would think of that.

Hammer Girl was hot as fuck, too.

Yes. Yes, she was.

Talking about her, I loved seeing her and Bat Boy's physical gestures and attitude. Said a lot about them without saying anything. I liked that Evans gave that to them.

Reminds me a lot of early Tsui Hark camera work. Crazy ass shit.

I've posted it a bunch before on the forums, but it starts at 6:46. Evans explains the back story the characters, which ties into what we see in the final product. Enjoy!

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