O.M.G. - impressions over The Raid...

[TheGrimReaper]

My stomach is still turning and vibrating from the enourmous amount of raw power and sheer ingeniuty spread over 100 minutes in what appears to be one of the best martial arts movie in the last 10 years - a collaboration between realtively uknown players on the block, it delivers kicks and punches which was sending me through martial arts bliss, and this is not happening everyday.

After rather interesting excercise in Merantau Iko/Gareth are teaming up to create brutal and adrenaline pumping feature named simple The Raid (The Raid: Redemption for the American market), and many of you may already seen trailers and part of movie in previous article, published not so long ago.

Let me start with a personal note - The Raid is one of the finest examples I've ever seen to this date and I'm looking forward to the Hong Kong/China/Thailand answer. It won't be easy to surpass its fluidity, charisma and last but not least almost perfect martial arts sequences, choreographed with exquisite touch towards details and fast paced takes, combined with execution seldom seen in recent years. After the initial hype and after few trailers I was waiting for it to emerge and I had to admit - the waiting is definitely worth it.

The plot is quite simple - a police special task force unit is going on a mission to apprehend local drug lord, well guarded and hidden within 30 floors in a building full of bad people with killing skills. 20 determined people facing a certain death as they are diving head first into chaos and mayhem, and only goal is to survive at any cost. From start to finish is one bloody and raw ride, no matter it's within the walls of a building - tight shots, almost claustrophobic, wide angles, swinging camera movements and exquisite editing is one of the positive sides here.

When you have to create something memorable on screen you just have to go the core of this genre, to the one pulsating and sparkling centre, where men shows what they are made of. And in such period that movies are now heavily relying on CGI and green screens, here only the blood effects were kinda artificial, all the rest is executed to a highest level. I wasn't paying so much attention to the fake blood, because I was mesmerised by the martial arts sequences, each crafted beautifully and actual improvements over the previous one. Iko shows remarkable skills and after seeing Pencak Silat for second time it is something which shouldn't be taken lightly by any opponents.

Gareth Evans really outdone himself here, after Merantau, and his performance as writer, director and editor is something amazing to watch, each scene was presented with such effort to get the viewer into the action, into the emotions of the main characters, into the pain and scent of hopelessnes. After the intial 10 minutes, when we are getting acquainted with the plot and who is the object of the raid itslef, through the exhausting scenes of murder and fight, up to the gripping end I saw the pure amount of sheer power, represented in a gruesome and grim way, but staying true to the core, and foundation of any classic martial arts movie from the early Shaw brothers features to the latest high-fly imagery. It has heart, it has lungs, imbued with vengeance and honor, with dignity and determination, with sweat and blood.

Read the rest here:

http://martialartsmoviesstation.blog...over-raid.html

Greetings

The Grim Reaper