Four stars. Rated R, for strong, bloody violence, gore, profanity and occasional nudity
By Derrick Bang
With 2011’s The Raid, writer/director Gareth Evans was just flexing his
muscles.
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| Anticipation is everything: Our hero, Rama (Iko Uwais, left) endures considerable punishment before his climactic confrontation with an opponent known only as The Assassin (Cecep Arif Rahman), but the wait is justified. Director Gareth Evans unleashes a battle royale that must be seen to be believed. |
Having now released a sequel,
Evans’ master plan has become clear: He’s going for an underworld crime epic
that’s the martial arts equivalent of Sergio Leone’s 1984 masterpiece, Once Upon a Time in America.
Evans is nothing if not
ambitious, and he delivers. The Raid 2
is a bravura display of action mayhem, delivered with superbly choreographed
panache and layered with enough simmering sub-plots to keep this narrative
percolating not only through this sequel’s 150 minutes, but well into the
already planned next installment.
Evans has the additional benefit
of the ideal acting collaborator in Iko Uwais, who wears his tortured nobility
like a shield. Uwais’ Rama is the superlative hero: Jakarta’s last and best
honest cop, whose trial by repeated fire pushes him to horrific extremes not
merely to save his life, but — far more importantly — also his soul.
We’re dealing here with crime
fiction’s ultimate moral imperative: Is it possible for a good man to remain
pure, while doing the dirty work required to combat evil?
Tormented angst is well and good;
it’s always nice to identify with our protagonist. But Evans also knows how to
please the martial arts fans who’ve hungered for an audacious, densely layered
follow-up to Quentin Tarantino’s two-part Kill
Bill epic. Rest assured, The Raid 2
satisfies that itch, and then some.
This new film’s narrative kicks
off seconds after the events in the previous film, which left Rama’s rookie cop
the lone survivor of a special-forces assault on a 15-story slum building laden
with thugs taking orders from their brutal boss on the top floor.
Unfortunately, bad as that guy
was, he was merely a mid-sized predator in a much larger food chain. If Rama is
hailed as a hero, he and his family will be executed as a warning to other
potentially honest cops with virtuous notions. Instead, Rama’s boss —
clandestinely doing his best to root out departmental corruption — concocts a
dangerous plan that begins with the very public announcement that the
aforementioned raid left no survivors.
Rama is given a new identity as a
low-level thug named Yuda, who establishes his rep by beating up a local
politician’s son and getting tossed into prison. Once incarcerated, our hero
must figure out a way to cozy up to Uco (Arifin Putra), son of Bangun (Tio
Pakusodewo), one of the two Jakarta criminal kingpins who’ve ruled the city via
a mutual truce that has lasted for years.
