so I just saw the raid tuber and owl and
it was quite enjoyable
now some people are calling it the best
action movie ever made and I'm not so
sure about that one but I did get my
money's worth to put it simply the raid
2 is structured quite differently from
the first film and because of that
there's some things that are done much
better and some things that are done
much worse part of what made the first
movie so great is that it was
straight-up action with no [ __ ] in
between and that's not to say that
expanding the story of the first one
would automatically be [ __ ] but
based on the few scenes that did touch
on the story it made me glad that they
kept it to a bare minimum and focused on
what the director excels at and this
director clearly excels at his fight
scenes and this isn't just the case with
the director but also the actors they
were all expertly crafted in their own
choreography but the actual performances
ranged from passable to pretty good
which is pretty much how I'd rate the
story scenes in general none of them
stood out as what I'd call bad but if I
was rating this movie on the story
scenes alone I'd probably be giving it a
6 keep in mind that I'd have a similar
rating for the story scenes in the first
movie but now instead of taking up a
small fraction of the screen time it's
taking up about half of it and when I
rate a movie I don't base my rating
solely on my favorite parts of it I rate
the movie as the whole thing the first
half hour of the film was probably the
least involving in the last half hour
was the most involving and that's the
case with both the story scenes and the
action scenes it built up nicely and the
payoff was totally worth it by not
confining your story to one building you
get a lot more freedom as to what type
of scenes you're able to shoot and this
helped the movie tremendously especially
closer to the end of it but not
everything that came out of that
decision was a positive thing the
confinements of the first film not only
gave it charm but it also helped mask
some of the problems that are exclusive
to the genre in most action movies it
kind of bothers me whenever the enemies
conveniently decide to attack the main
character one at a time but when nearly
every action scene in the entire movie
takes place in a hallway it suddenly
starts to make a lot more sense in the
raid - I found myself getting taken out
of the movie during one scene in
particular I found myself wondering why
are you six people standing in the
background on a deserted road when
there's nothing keeping you from all
attacking him at once
I appreciate this movie's larger scale
but because of that it leaves a lot more
room for error
the woman singing karaoke was
distractingly out of sync the computer
animated snowfall was not convincing
enough for a Canadian at the beginning
of the movie what seems like a relevant
tie-in to the first
actually turns out to be forced and
pointless the lack of excessive story
and exposition in the first film allowed
the action scenes to be more effective
when you first watch it it's not all too
clear who the surviving characters are
going to be and it brings a lot of
tension to the fight scenes when a
character faces a threat it's always
better when that character's level of
expendability is completely unknown that
was something that the first movie did
quite well but I don't feel as though
that aspect appeared in the second movie
at all sure it's still fun to watch one
character beat everybody up but it
really takes away the fear of
consequence when you know that he's
basically invincible in the raid -
there's no question as to which
characters are going to appear in the
final scenes of the film and that
doesn't make it a bad movie by far but
it does add to the list of things that
prevent it from being exceptional and
when I say not exceptional I mean there
are plenty of exceptional scenes within
the film but for me to call this movie
exceptional overall they'd have to not
be dragged down by the many
above-average scenes accompanying them
now before you all start freaking out
let me quickly mention that I'm giving
this film a 7 so right away that should
tell you that despite having some issues
with it there are some things that this
film did very well obviously the
majority of the fight choreography is
about as amazing as you should expect
now from a Gareth Evans film not to be
confused with Gareth Edwards who's
directing Godzilla like god damn it
Gareth isn't even that common of a name
and now they're both making big movies
[ __ ] but what I really saw a noticeable
improvement in was the camerawork during
those fight scenes it's impressive to
watch the camera go through windows with
the characters and often match their
angle of rotation and the level of
coordination to pull off some of the
shots in the driving scene was pretty
mind-boggling the use of music was
generally great and really helped with
the tone and there were a few scenes
where I found myself glad that they
chose not to use music I also liked how
they introduced too intimidating and
strange characters with signature
weapons it made the movie feel more cool
without it being too serious and almost
gave off a kind of Kill Bill vibe but
other than that it was mostly just a fun
and entertaining action movie and I
didn't leave the theater feeling
disappointed by it but it had a lot of
potential to be much better than it was
the story scenes in-between the action
only felt engaging once they started to
become relevant and necessary closer
towards the end of the film the first
movie achieved that easily because it
was mostly the characters going how the
[ __ ] do we get out of here alive but in
the second movie it mostly felt like a
lot of here's the explanation for why
the main characters about to be in a
fight scene here's another explanation
for why the main character is going to
be in a fight scene
again obviously the first film felt more
organic in this sense because they had a
constant objective of needing to escape
but in this movie it felt like they were
just constantly coming up with new
excuses as to why there should be a
fight scene taking place now I know that
the issues I had with the movie are ones
that might not bother everybody but it's
important to recognize that there are
elements that gave me extra appreciation
for the first film that simply aren't in
the second personally I think this movie
would have worked much better if it
started fresh in its own series a few
tie-ins to the first film not only felt
a little forced to me but they were kind
of irrelevant you could have even kept
the same main actor if you really wanted
and I don't think anybody would really
be bothered by that not only would it
stop people like me from endlessly
comparing this film to the first but it
also wouldn't be extremely distracting
to see the exact same actor play two
different characters like I get it he's
got a cool face and he fights well and
you wanted to use him again even though
you killed off his character in the
first movie but if this movie was just a
different story and not the raid - then
I wouldn't have spent a significant
portion of the movie wondering is that
the same person or am I really racist
granted if the title was anything other
than the raid - this movie wouldn't have
made nearly as much money but hey you
gotta pay the rent somehow overall I
really enjoyed it and I would recommend
checking it out at least once and I'll
be sure enough to check out the third
movie in theaters once it's released I'm
giving this one a seven out of ten but I
already said that and just in case you
forgot
Oh