*Originally written May 3rd, 2017*
I seem to enjoy The Raid less with every
watch, I still like it, quite a bit even, but the more I watch it, the
more the problems glare out at me. It's the same problem people have
with the first John Wick (Which isn't a problem for me), but The Raid
severely lacks in story and feels a lot longer than its 100
minutes runtime.
The story is fairly simple, a SWAT team get locked in an apartment complex and have to fight their way to the top to kill the big bad. It's video-gamey stuff and sadly came along way to close to the Dredd film with an extremely similar concept.
There is nothing wrong with The Raid's simple concept, it's just there is not a lot there, the main character is the only one given any depth, while everyone else is pure cannon fodder for the chaos that ensues. It doesn't help that the sequel is so much richer in character and story, but this was a decent jumping off point for the series.
Where The
Raid obviously excells is with the action, the choreographed
martial-arts and stunt work is incredible, it's brutal, extremely
violent and kinetic. It's sadly let down by some glaringly CGI blood,
but I can forgive that for such a low-budget film. The whole film is one
long fight scene, to the point where it does get a little repetitive
and some action scenes go on a bit longer than they need to, to the
point where they start to lose impact.
The general look of the film is quite ugly too, everything looks washed out and quite dull, almost like a straight-to-DVD film. Again, I assume this is due to the budget, but a bit of colour could have gone a long way here. It's also made uglier by just how much prettier the sequel looks.
The Raid is certainly one of the best films of recent years due to its incredible stunt-work and action, but on rewatches and other films doing this a lot better, The Raid is slowly losing its impact.
7/10 Dans
The Raid is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
Follow us:
Twitter: @FigmentReviews, @DanBremner1996 and @ArronRoke91
Instagram: @DanBremner and @ArronRoke
YouTube: Figment Reviews
Letterboxd: Dan and Arron
Facebook
The story is fairly simple, a SWAT team get locked in an apartment complex and have to fight their way to the top to kill the big bad. It's video-gamey stuff and sadly came along way to close to the Dredd film with an extremely similar concept.
There is nothing wrong with The Raid's simple concept, it's just there is not a lot there, the main character is the only one given any depth, while everyone else is pure cannon fodder for the chaos that ensues. It doesn't help that the sequel is so much richer in character and story, but this was a decent jumping off point for the series.
The general look of the film is quite ugly too, everything looks washed out and quite dull, almost like a straight-to-DVD film. Again, I assume this is due to the budget, but a bit of colour could have gone a long way here. It's also made uglier by just how much prettier the sequel looks.
The Raid is certainly one of the best films of recent years due to its incredible stunt-work and action, but on rewatches and other films doing this a lot better, The Raid is slowly losing its impact.
7/10 Dans
The Raid is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
Follow us:
Twitter: @FigmentReviews, @DanBremner1996 and @ArronRoke91
Instagram: @DanBremner and @ArronRoke
YouTube: Figment Reviews
Letterboxd: Dan and Arron
No comments:
Post a Comment