The Raid 2 was released in its home country of Indonesia way back on March 28th, but it wasn't until last Friday it made it to cinemas in Norway. I was lucky enough to get to watch it on Thursday, at the last screening in my home town.
It didn't have the best of luck when it comes to the Norwegian film market. It was released the same week as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, just a week after Guardians of the Galaxy and Hercules (which is a big hit in Norway because of the Norwegian actors), and a mere five days before the Norwegian drive-away hit Børning. In its premiere weekend it got 440 visitors, two hundred less visitors than Rio 2 which was enjoying its 18th week at cinemas. Monday through Thursday this week 857 people went to watch it, over a thousand less than who watched Rio 2. Unfortunately it just didn't get enough traction, so my local cinema announced its last screening to be not even a week after the premiere. It's hard to say exactly what it was. Børning opened on a Wednesday and managed to get away with sixty thousand viewers by closing on Thursday. It generated long lines and full theatres all across Norway, but people just weren't interested in The Raid 2. Maybe they hadn't even heard about it. I barely ever saw a trailer for the film, because most mainstream films in Norway don't really fit into the same category as The Raid 2, so the trailer doesn't get to run in front of them, but they still bet on it. Stavanger cinema played it every night from Friday to Thursday in one of its newest and best equipped theatres that can hold 108 people, but on the last screening only six people showed up. There just weren't any interest.
Luckily most people who watched it did enjoy. Getting an 8.5 out of 10 from audience votes on Filmweb, and a 7.5 from critics. And I have to say I agree. It's easy to look at a foreign film and outright dismiss it because it's from a culture you know very little about, and you'd have to "read it". But this is really good, and you won't find yourself lost in the cultural differences because of its Welsh director. He manages to make the film feel exotic and foreign, but still close to home. We can relate to the character's troubles and situations, we're all people.
As the title suggests this is a sequel, to The Raid: Redemption from 2011, and it's not the kind of sequel you can just sit down and watch and understand everything. At least not in the same way you would having watched the first film. It starts right off the bat with the story, almost as if nothing at all happened between the first and second film. We're thrown right into it, and even I who watched the first film just earlier this year was at some points thrown off by events and characters I didn't completely remember. Luckily the director/writer sneaks in hints and nudges throughout, making you remember exactly what you need to remember, and soon enough you'll be up to speed and there's no problem following the story.
The story is a lot more complex and interesting than last time. We get to follow a whole cast of different people doing different things, all with different agendas and paths to reach them. I'll admit, to begin with it was a bit poorly structured. You would follow the main-main character Rama for a while, making you think it was all about him, and then they suddenly started throwing in more characters. You started following the kingpin Bangun for a little while, and then you thought maybe him and Rama were the main characters. But then they threw in more, and more, and then some more. After the first two throw-ins you start to get the picture. You see how they're all connected and you get interested in their stories. But I wish it had been done from the beginning. It can be hard to fully care or at least pretend to care about character when he/she only gets introduced three quarters through the film. Because in the end it is glorious, we get to see every story arc play out amongst themselves, we get to see how they connect and intertwine, and it gives us a bit more perspective on the whole story than just following Rama would. But it does feel like they wanted a TV series more than a film, it can be a lot to take in in a 150-minute film. Even though the film is as long as it is, it rarely stays quiet, there's almost always something happening. Almost always.
The moments between the almost always can be cruel. You've followed the story development for quite some time, and suddenly it just ends, instead you get fight scenes that lasts between five and fifteen minutes. The fight scenes are amazingly well done, they're cool to look at, and generally more creative than what you get from other films, but they still make the film almost stop. It's the same problem Børning had. You have the story, and then you just push that out of the way because you want to focus on the niche of your genre for a little while. There should've been a better way of handling it, and presenting it. But hopefully you will still find some enjoyment in those segments, I did, I just felt they were out of place. Luckily they were all shot beautifully.
The film as a whole looks stunningly. It's filmed with such grace and thoughtfulness that it makes you almost feel like you're watching an entirely different type of picture. The film did not have any studio logos at the beginning, so when the film suddenly started I thought I was looking at an Interstellar teaser for a minute. It looked like something straight out of a Christopher Nolan film. The film always portrays things the way it feels like they should be portrayed. There's no shot that I can recall that felt really out of place and disruptive, they all blended together and formed a visually fantastic piece of film.
Overall this is a film I think you should watch. You might not be able to watch it at the cinema, which is a shame because seeing it on a big screen was marvelous, you should be able to get your hands on a home release. It should be on iTunes in most of the bigger markets, and probably on DVD and or BD in even more markets. If you like films, just in general or fighting films in particular, you owe it to yourself to watch this film. Don't let the foreign language discourage you, don't let the violence discourage you, just watch it. If I manage to convince you to watch it, I doubt you will be disappointed.
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