The Raid is an Indonesian movie that had gained vast popularity since its debut at 2011 Toronto Festival. Yet I and fellow Indonesians must wait until January 2012 for its national theatrical release. Thanks to our local action, horror, and fantasy film festival (INAFFF 2011) who bring The Raid as its closing movie so hundreds lucky Jakarta movie fans can watch this movie two month ahead its official release.
The story is as simple as its title. I knew some spoilers from some Toronto reviewers. So I attended the show for its martial arts and original score.
The version we saw was the international version, in Indonesian language with English subtitles, and original score by two Indonesian music illustrators. I was worried I would see the Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda score version because i read its original score was great and suitable the movie's atmosphere and indeed, Aria Prayogi and Fajar Yuskemal did a great job!
Now, the martial arts section... You will find many fight scenes that looks real and bloody, but if you're not new to martial arts movies genre you'll think they're great or spectacular because of its close, fast, realistic and unpredictable moves by both protagonist or antagonist side that makes viewers had some wow moments and gave applause to some fight scenes... Thanks to the superb action choreography by the two leading actors Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian.
There's no bombastic sling fights or overlong fights with the winner stay clean. The Director of Photography did a great job too, showing us not-so-shaky fight scenes. As an Indonesian i've never seen our original martial arts style (Pencak Silat) could be as deadly as i'd seen in this movie; i only know Silat for solely exhibition or championship purpose.
I'd like to compare The Raid to some of my favorite of Hongkong 90's modern martial arts movies such as Donnie Yen's In The Line of Duty 4 or Tiger Cage 2, or Frankie Chan's Burning Ambition and still i think The Raid is above them. Writer/editor/director Gareth Huy Evans create an efficient story with clever ending. It also had some funny dialogs for us -the native viewers- though its English subtitles (a little bit) didn't match the original. But still The Raid is a great martial arts movie, not only compare to Indonesian or South Asia action movies but in general...
Since The Raid got Sony and other international distributors' attention for its international release then there will be many martial arts movie fans worldwide are gonna watch this movie and i bet they'll like it too...
The story is as simple as its title. I knew some spoilers from some Toronto reviewers. So I attended the show for its martial arts and original score.
The version we saw was the international version, in Indonesian language with English subtitles, and original score by two Indonesian music illustrators. I was worried I would see the Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda score version because i read its original score was great and suitable the movie's atmosphere and indeed, Aria Prayogi and Fajar Yuskemal did a great job!
Now, the martial arts section... You will find many fight scenes that looks real and bloody, but if you're not new to martial arts movies genre you'll think they're great or spectacular because of its close, fast, realistic and unpredictable moves by both protagonist or antagonist side that makes viewers had some wow moments and gave applause to some fight scenes... Thanks to the superb action choreography by the two leading actors Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian.
There's no bombastic sling fights or overlong fights with the winner stay clean. The Director of Photography did a great job too, showing us not-so-shaky fight scenes. As an Indonesian i've never seen our original martial arts style (Pencak Silat) could be as deadly as i'd seen in this movie; i only know Silat for solely exhibition or championship purpose.
I'd like to compare The Raid to some of my favorite of Hongkong 90's modern martial arts movies such as Donnie Yen's In The Line of Duty 4 or Tiger Cage 2, or Frankie Chan's Burning Ambition and still i think The Raid is above them. Writer/editor/director Gareth Huy Evans create an efficient story with clever ending. It also had some funny dialogs for us -the native viewers- though its English subtitles (a little bit) didn't match the original. But still The Raid is a great martial arts movie, not only compare to Indonesian or South Asia action movies but in general...
Since The Raid got Sony and other international distributors' attention for its international release then there will be many martial arts movie fans worldwide are gonna watch this movie and i bet they'll like it too...