Review No.79: The Raid

As I was at the cinema on a Tuesday, where the admission prices are reduced significantly, I decided to add another film to my Avengers trip turning the afternoon's movie-going experience into a double-bill. As my choice was incredibly violent Indonesian film The Raid my friend decided not to stay with me so I was on my own for this one. It still being just after four there was once again only a few people in the cinema and in fact there were fewer people present here than those who'd turned up to see Avengers Assemble I'm guessing it was down to the fact that this was in another language which is often a deterrent to most people. I have to say strangely I struggled with the subtitle-reading, which usually isn't a problem for me, however they've recently increased the size of the screens at my local multiplex so there was a significant gap between the image and the translation of the script meaning that I had to move my head up and down to understand what was being said. Though after the opening plot explanation there was very little dialogue as the film kicked and the violence begun I just sat back to enjoy myself as people were shot, decapitated or destroyed by deadly hand-to-hand combat. The plot is simple as we follow a group of rookie cops who have been tasked with arresting a slum landlord Tama and drugs kingpin who lives at the top of his fifteen story tower block in which the police have to navigate in order to get their man. A lot of these cops are finished off in the early stages of the operation so our focus is on the more senior lieutenant and the new-on-the-job Rama who is about to become a father while in addition has a personal connection to someone working for Tama. After a while the mission for the remaining officers seems to be to leave the block rather than get their man however with Tama upping the ante it does remain to be seen if anybody will make it out alive.

During my Film Studies masters course I took a module about how film-makers utilise the space in which their stories are set and in the case of Gareth Huw Evans the tower block where the majority of the action takes place almost becomes a character in its own right. From the narrow corridors to the small confines of the rooms and the dingy lifts everything is used here to involve us in the action and make this place seem as creepy as possible. The fact that Tama has cameras set up meaning that he can send his lackeys out to track down and kill anybody he wants while he is also able to put out message to his tenants via a speaker system which echoes through the building. There are some really breath-taking action sequences here with two of them involving Tama's henchman Mad Dog who prefers to use his body rather than guns to finish people off and we see how he does this in one particularly brutal scene. Evans does work in some backstory and character development in between piling up the bodies we learn about Rama's past as well as why the lieutenant wanted the raid carried out in the first place which makes the final scenes even more significant. Though I had a little trouble getting intot he plot to begin with eventually I found myself sucked in to everything that was going on here and with the cinema's new speaker system the thumping soundtrack coupled with the constant ricochet of gunshots made me really feel like i was along for the ride in a way that a 3D film never could. There are a few problems with the film namely with a couple of the big revelations which I saw coming a mile off and also a part of the ending that I really wasn't a fan of but apart from that this was an awesomely violent visual spectacular which really marks Evans out as interesting film-maker especially as he's a Welshman working in Indonesian cinema. Evans has recently told us that he's working on The Raid 2 however after blowing the first tower-block to bits and killing off most of its residents I'm guessing a new venue will be needed for the police to do their work in.

Verdict: A thrilling, violent yet humanistic masterpiece which utilises its space brilliantly and takes you along for the ride it does have a few problems so I can't give it full marks but it still gets 9/10