Time for a film

The Raid is one of the most brutal, intense films I have ever had the privilege to see. It’s full of violence, crazy fighting, knives, guns and non stop action. If it didn’t have a storyline it wouldn’t matter, but it has a decent one of those as well!
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The carnage begins almost straight away but we first meet Rama (Iko Uwais), a rookie agent in a SWAT team headed by sergeant Jaka (Joe Taslim). He tells his pregnant wife and unborn child to wait for him to return from his mission. The mission is to infiltrate ruthless ruler Tama’s (Ray Sahetaby) 30 storey building and put a stop to his is army of killers and thugs. 

The action in this movie is crazy, and it has been hailed as the best action film to hit cinemas in years. It truly is. From the moment they enter the block, they stealthily start knocking off guards and watchmen. What usually would be a boring one person kill is turned into thrilling scenes of tactics and suspense, and that’s before they are found. Once a spotter manages to alert those on the upper levels of what’s coming for them the action grows to even more unthinkable levels with the SWAT team starting to get picked off and looking vulnerable and cornered.
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While these scenes were great, the film really comes into it’s own when the SWAT team gets split up and the one-on-one scenes become prominent. Never before have I seen such exhilarating, fascinating, unique and thrilling action. It’s often very violent and not for the faint hearted, but it’s just so well done you can’t help but be glued to the screen.
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What’s even more brilliant about this film is when there isn’t constant action scenes it often has you laughing. After just seeing 10 people brutally dealt with it somehow has the power to make the whole cinema laugh moments later. I thought that was brilliant and the storyline also grows throughout the movie including a couple of twists and turns.

Without giving away too many spoilers, the ending is fantastic with a very long and intense battle that had the audience pull out a rather large round of applause. The atmosphere the movie generated was fantastic and people couldn’t help but cringe and gasp throughout the movie due to the sheer magnitude of violence and close shaves.
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Overall The Raid was not just a great movie but it was a fantastic experience. It evoked excitement and emotions and was one of the best action films I have ever seen. It has a lot of violence and while that suited me just fine I can understand why some would have reservations. If you can handle that, then it will be one of the best films you’ve seen in a long, long time. A