The Shadow Strays

It's a cool action movie with some particularly graphic violence to accompany the well-choreographed action scenes. And by graphic violence, I mean some of the killings of standard action-movie henchmen reach body-horror levels of brutality. The story is reasonably straightforward: an elite assassin gets suspended from active duty after fumbling a mission. She soon finds new purpose in protecting/avenging a local kid. Performances are good, there's lots of wild action and the story is familiar but compelling. Unfortunately it gets bogged down in an extraneous subplot at the start of the third act and said subplot subsumes the finale.

Let me just say the movie is worth a watch for sure. It has great fight scenes and a cliche but serviceable plot. My main issue with this movie is the finale and just how silly it gets. There is a big shootout in the movie that is just horribly done and every sequence that involves a gun is badly done. There is not consistency or any realism to it. Now don't get me wrong I'm not looking for any realism in this movie but at some point it just starts to get jarring. It also drags on for way to long, there is another sequence after the main finale that should just have been cut. It's another one of those movie that suffers from a horrible final act. Overall it's a great first time watch but I personally wouldn't rewtach. The Night Comes for Us is the better movie for sure.

Basic story. Awesome fights. Lead actress did a fantastic job. Fight choreography fast and furious. A must watch action movie for action lovers. For that budget the movie had rich look, needs to appreciate director and also cinematographer. Occasionally felt some moves are kind of seemed jarred because of camera angles but overall the action moves are fantastic. If you hate lots of bloodshed and gore watching this movie is bit difficult. Lead actress Aurora did justified the role. Along with the action she also able to act though not much needed for this role. Overall this movie doesn't disappoint you.

From the director of The Night Comes For Us & May the Devil Take You comes a vicious, violent & vengeful action thriller that delivers on the action front with its no-holds-barred approach yet is undermined by its needlessly overlong & half-baked story that actually could've done without a whole subplot. Within its bloated 145 mins runtime, there is a lean n mean 90 mins action film that would've sufficed.

Written & directed by Timo Tjahjanto (Killers & Headshot), The Shadow Strays concerns a young assassin who goes on a killing rampage to save a boy from a crime syndicate. Tjahjanto's direction is lot better than his writing, for the action set pieces & fight choreography are utterly impressive but the dramatic portion is weak, character bits lack depth, storytelling is mediocre, plus it piles up extra baggage for no reason.

The picture would've been thoroughly gripping if it was solely focused on a single tightly-knitted plot instead of branching out in multiple directions and didn't need to be as long as it turned out to be, for it unnecessarily complicated a simple, straightforward premise. Performances are fine when it comes to the physicality of the roles but isn't compelling on the emotional front. And the journey also gets repetitive after a while.

Overall, The Shadow Strays is packed with bloody, intense & gruesome scenes of carnage but there is also a much better film buried beneath all the insipid attempts at creating a sprawling crime drama at which it fails. The story is at its most gripping when it features our protagonist slice, dice, stab & slash her way through endless bodies and yet every time the film decides to take a breather, the interest fizzles out and it all comes to a standstill.

"The Shadow Strays" is marked by its shocking gore and unrestrained, exaggerated violence, but it lacks depth. It follows the familiar trope of a skilled assassin who, weary of her secretive existence, risks everything to save someone she hardly knows.

Thirteen (Aurora Ribero), a 17-year-old assassin with a compassionate side, takes on a formidable Jakarta crime syndicate after they threaten her young neighbor, Monji (Ali Fikry). Monji's mother, Mirasti (Jesyca Marlein), was a sex worker exploited by the brutal pimp Haga (Agra Piliang), who is linked to the sleazy nightclub owner Ariel (Andri Mashadi) and his politically influential father, Soemitro (Arswendy Bening Swara). After Haga murders Monji's mother, Thirteen forms a bond with him and finds herself in a deadly game of cat and mouse with Haga, Ariel, and their associates. A series of gruesome and dramatic showdowns decimate their ranks.

The film drags on with relentless fighting and lacks the substance needed to unify its elements. While the cinematography is commendable, some early fight scenes are poorly executed, featuring adversaries lined up to be taken down one by one. This isn't the kind of movie I'll get excited for.