The Raid: Redemption is unashamedly an action film. After ten minutes of exposition, writer/director Gareth Evans' story is an unending barrage of fights, gunfire, and tension. The plot, as it were, concerns a police SWAT team infiltrating a mob-run and occupied apartment complex to take out the leader once and for all. It quickly becomes apparent that the entire job is a set-up and the highly skilled officers are left fighting for their lives in a tightly controlled compound.
The easiest way to describe the effect of The Raid: Redemption is to call it an action ballet. Well over 100 highly skilled martial artists and stunt performers execute meticulously choreographed fight sequences for ninety minutes of a film. They jump through ceilings, flip over stairwells, and smash through doors to a synth rock score.
The original music is the key to the film's release in America. For whatever reason, Sony Pictures Classics decided to hire Linkin Park's Mike Shinodo and composer Joseph Trapanese to write a new score for The Raid: Redemption. While I'm sad to see the original score being replaced, the new work by Shinodo and Trapanese brings out the nuance of the film.
There is not a moment in the film where the music is not used to highlight the action. If there's a lull in the fight, the music jumps to a heavily cycling synth wave that crescendos into the next big attack. The score follows the hits beat for beat. What the music lacks in variety in makes up for in precision. I could not imagine this film without that music, even if it isn't the original score. It is one of the most effective action scores I've ever encountered because you cannot separate it from what's happening on screen.
This is not to downplay the amazing stunt choreography of Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian. They both pull double duty, starring in the film (leading man and leading villain, respectively) and putting together all the intricate stunt sequences. The film wisely downplays the abilities of the cast with an opening sequence comprised of gunplay until the bullets run out. Then, it's every man for himself with machetes, gravity knives, chairs, and fists in a bloody battle for control of the apartment complex. The stunts this cast performs are genuinely impressive. I haven't seen half of what they do in this film before.
The special effects are a perfect match for the hand to hand combat. This is not a film with fountains of blood and buckets of pig guts because of a paper cut. If there's blood, it's dark, visceral, and all too real. In fact, one of the most intense moments in the film relies on the fact that, no, getting cut on the cheek does not result in a water cooler full of blood gushing out of the body. The grounded effects make the more fantastic action sequences feel real.
If there is a fault to the film, it is the storyline. The stakes do not change once the action is in motion. At the end of the film, either the mob leader or the SWAT team will win. There is no other out. Despite some side story between the main officer and a major mobster, the drive of the story is the kill or be killed action in a mob apartment complex. There is just enough plot going on to justify the violence. The problem is, like an entertaining musical with no memorable melodies, you can't really come out of a non-stop action film humming a particular fight sequence when you barely get to learn the characters' names.
Any action fan should gladly see these Indonesian action epic. Not everyone is up for a large body count film and that's ok. If you can stomach onscreen violence tempered by excellent acting and precision editing, The Raid: Redemption is a film you should seek out.
Rating: 8/10
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