The Raid 2: Recap.

Fighting is ugly.  Fighting is raw, claustrophobic, and intense, a knock-down drag-out burst of pure adrenaline that is over all too quickly.

The same adjectives could be used to describe Gareth Evans' martial-arts blockbuster, The Raid.

Two years ago, Welsh director Gareth Evans and Indonesian star Iko Uwais reinvented the martial arts film with a deceptively simple premise: rookie cop Rama (Uwais) and his SWAT team are trapped in a Jakarta tower block. The close-quarters nature of the beast and threadbare premise (fight your way out) played out like a videogame, Rama going from level to level focused purely on survival. But that is by no means an insult; no-one, and we mean no-one, watches these things for the plot. This is not Wes Anderson.

Chief amongst the factors that kept The Raid fresh was its approach to the fighting, and in this Uwais brought a new faction to the old schools of beat-'em-up cinema: traditional Chinese gung fu versus the 'Statham' mix of kickboxing, judo and headbutts. We've had Bruce Lee as Hong Kong's Superman, and Jackie Chan's Chinese Opera generation turning martial arts into elaborately choreographed dances. We've had all varieties of Westerners slugging their way through foes with pithy one-liners. But following in the footsteps of Tony Jaa's fabulous Thai boxing showcase Ong Bak, Evans pairs Western action-movie setting with Uwais' knowledge of Penkak Silat, an Indonesian martial art.

The economy of Uwais' fighting calls to mind, of all things, Christopher Nolan's Batman, but the similarity is there. Batman's discipline, a new martial art entitled the Keysi Fighting Method, shares roots with Silat. Vicious and economical, both arts take advantage of openings in a defense to break bones and work against joints, each action as tightly contained as the film itself. Everything fits.

This portrayal of Rama as a death-dealing machine is in stark contrast with Uwais' everyman looks and slight build, possessing neither the iron jaw of Van Damme nor the fierce intensity of Bruce Lee. It makes the torrent of violence all the more shocking, but it's not the violence that's new. By taking an action movie as old as the hills and presenting it with new leads, new moves and a very un-Hollywood respect for the genre, all the old tropes have a new spring in their step. This newfound joy is there in every punch and kick.

Evans' ambitious follow-up to The Raid looks to provide a slightly more Asian take on cinema, taking a step back from the claustrophobia of the previous film to breathe, exploring more of the underworld, some very painful-looking knifeplay, and introducing new craziness from characters like Hammer Girl. I'll be definitely first in line to watch it, providing action's hottest double-act keep themselves grounded in what made The Raid as fresh as it was.



So, to recap: should be good. Not for squeamish. Go and see. Not Wes Anderson.


The Raid 2 is out now.