I didn't like either one. Runs out of thread and hides...

The writing of this one didn't live up to the ambition of the story. Bringing back Ruhian as a completely different character was a mistake. It's overlong and "The Assassin" was underdeveloped and merely a sketch of a character. Disappointing lack of true buildup to the battle between him and Rama. Would've made much more dramatic sense to combine him and Bejo some way so that when Rama ultimately lays the beatdown it's much more personal. Still hoping for a Raid 3 but that's still up in the air at the moment considering how poorly this did even with the miniscule budget.

Evans said early last year that nothing is written for the 3rd film yet. That it would be at least 3 years until it appears.

http://www.slashfilm.com/raid-3-release/

He did a short film early this year which features Cecep Arif Rahman & Yayan Ruhian

http://www.firstshowing.net/2016/wat...ai-short-film/

Actor Scott Adkins has been doing interviews over the past few weeks with Directors & Actors within the Genre, such as Kane Kosugi & Tony Jaa to Michael Jai White & Marko Zaror.

Yesterday's Episode was with Director/Writer Gareth Evans!

I re-watched both The Raid and The Raid 2 and both are truly a marvel to behold. One of the few sequels that far surpasses the first movie.

The Raid 2 might be the best pure action movie ever made, in my opinion.

I thought it was interesting how they don't really like shooting wide shots. And how they were more influenced by Bruce/Jackie/Sammo than the Shaw Bros. But I guess it's about accessibility of the material. I grew up with Shaw Bros films and not on Bruce/Jackie/Sammo.

I preferred the first one. More is not necessarily better, I just get numb.

It's definitely about accessibility. In that interview, Evans mentions that he grew up in a village (which according to Wikipedia had a population of about 4,800+ 19 years ago) but still had access to a local video store.

I grew up with all of the above but saw my first Shaw Bros. film (Five Element Ninjas) before my first Bruce/Jackie/Sammo films.

I chalk that up to growing up in a large city and the local public access station playing heavily cut & dubbed Shaw Bros. films on weekends.

Okay, I chuckled at this, for at least 2 minutes.

Growing up in Hawaii, we had a local theater that would play the Shaw Bros films in their original language as well as the Saturday afternoon dubbed versions on tv. I didn't get into Bruce and Jackie until much later in high school.

It's been an interesting realization tho, especially very recently about the issues of inclusion. I never sat and bothered to care about Asians because 1) I never sat there and wished that there were more Asian representation on the big screen when I had access to many films and tv shows that were from China or Japan in my youth for me to look up to and 2) I was born into a state where Asians were the majority and Caucasians were the minority.

Did the same and I absolutely agree. It’s a shame that it doesn’t appear likely that we will ever get a Raid 3.

I kinda feel that 'accessibility' for Evans was there (he's only 40 right now), but it took his dad and him picking out those 'extra' tapes each time they visited the rental shop to really get the ball rolling. Much of what he needed for things to click in terms of Hong Kong action cinema was already accessible by the late 80's and early 90's, especially in the colonial UK, even in those tiny town video shops; he just needed to be introduced to it. We all had our 'in' points. His apparently was ARMOUR OF GOD, which was probably a few years old even then. If he'd known about it, he might've also tuned into the UK's Incredibly Strange Film Show back then, which ran episodes about Jackie Chan and Tsui Hark in 1989. The 80's and 90's were key growth periods for the growing global interest in Hong Kong cinema, so by the time Evans was in his teens, he should've or could've easily been well-versed, but more likely in the works of Jackie/Sammo since they were the logical evolution of everything that had come before, including Bruce and the Shaws. They redefined action choreography and production values that had grown rather stale in those films. The action scenes in the RAID films -- and even some of Adkins better movies -- feel like direct descendants of the Jackie/Sammo school, by way of any number of previous American films that mixed suddenly hot Hong Kong-style choreography (not to mention actual Hong Kong choreographers) into existing screen action design principles. I've rarely missed wide shots in action sequences since I got into Hong Kong cinema in the 80's. They're rarely needed, other than as a quick establishing shot, as Evans admits. And as long as the close-ups, medium shots, and choreography aren't buried in (or disguised by) sloppy editing and/or shaky cam, the results are often near perfection these days.