The action movie genre has a pretty poor reputation for sequels. It’s a mixed bag, with classics like Terminator 2: Judgment Day or Mad Max: Fury Road carrying the weight of a lot of unimpressive second attempts. A lot of modern action sequels attempt to recapture the glory of a film from 30 years ago, often without any of the cast or crew that made the first one great. However, some follow-ups simply do what a sequel is supposed to do: improve and expand the successes of the original. The Raid 2 belongs in that camp, but few have seen it to prove that.
Like any genre, action movies often move in trends. One massive hit, either commercially or critically, can completely alter the way filmmakers depict on-screen violence. It took Bruce Lee putting on a domino mask to play Kato in The Green Hornet to start selling martial arts movies to an American audience. Years later, The Matrix would reintroduce many westerners to Hong Kong’s advancements. Films like Ong-Baak and Ip Man became sensations before John Wick put on the suit, but one Indonesian thriller redefined the genre.
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What is The Raid 2 about?
|
Director |
Gareth Evans |
|---|---|
|
Writer |
Gareth Evans |
|
Stars |
Iko Uwais, Arifin Putra, Alex Abbad, Cecep Arif Rahman, and Yayan Ruhian |
|
Runtime |
150 Minutes |
|
Release Date |
March 28, 2014 |
Released three years after The Raid: Redemption, The Raid 2: Retaliation follows the continued exploits of Rama, Iko Uwais’ special forces super soldier. After narrowly surviving the first film, Rama receives an offer from a police lieutenant in charge of a secretive internal investigation unit. He gets the chance to go undercover in Jakarta’s criminal underworld, investigate a brewing gang war, and uncover the actions of corrupt cops and officials. Rama initially refuses, but after the loss of another survivor of the initial raid, Rama agrees to join the operation. His assignment forces him to befriend the unstable son of a powerful crime boss. That boss is the last line of defense between the local Yakuza branch and an ambitious new presence called Bejo. Three gangs wield armies of assassins in an uneasy peace that could quickly consume Jakarta in violence. Rama finds himself in the midst of shifting power structures, unclear motivations, and enough killers to turn the streets red with blood. Where the first film was a tight, contained rush of brutality, The Raid 2is a sprawling epic that delves deeper into the world that spawned The Raid.
How was The Raid 2 received?
The impact of The Raid can’t be overstated. It carries the usual signifiers of success, both critically and commercially. The Raid made over $9 million worldwide on a budget of just over $1 million, racking up an impressive return on investment. Critics lavished it with praise, granting the film an 87% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Raid 2 was far less impressive financially, bringing in only $6.5 million on its inflated $4.5 million budget. That increased budget is certainly on-screen, but audiences simply didn’t reward its greater expense. Critics were similarly delighted, handing the sequel an 83% positive score. In terms of average scores, the first film had a 7.3 while the sequel captured 7.0, barely setting them apart. The real noticeable discrepancy on Rotten Tomatoes is in audience scores. Their positive percentages are oddly identical, as is the number of Rotten Tomatoes-approved critics that reviewed each film, but far fewer audience members left reviews for the project. The original has over 50,000 amateur reviews, while the sequel has around 10,000. The awful truth is that no one saw the sequel, dooming it to relative obscurity.
The Raid 2 could have failed for several reasons, but its quality isn’t one of them. Theaters removed the film after only a week at the box office, robbing it of any opportunity to grow organically. This is a common issue among non-franchise films. Frankly, Marvel probably killed The Raid 2. The film dropped in the United States on March 28th, 2014, exactly one week before the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Poor luck that one of the finest Marvel movies in the franchise, and one so heavily influenced by martial arts epics like The Raid, had to fall so close to The Raid 2. Still, the film deserves the attention it never got. It’s a masterpiece that fans of the genre were unfairly robbed of.
Where can you watch The Raid 2?
Good news for fans who missed The Raid 2 in theaters; it’s available to stream through multiple outlets. The Raid 2 is available free with ads via Pluto TV and Amazon Prime Video. Viewers in places outside the United States can also find it on Netflix, but American fans no longer have access.
The Raid 2 deserves more attention. It’s everything the first one was and more, cranking every element up to 11 and unleashing some of the finest action scenes of the decade. Those fans who haven’t seen it are in for a treat because The Raid 2 is well worth tracking down.
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