Dragon_Eye_Morrison

What does a good action movie requires? I'll say two things: good action sequences, and well build characters. You just can't have one without the other, usually we get the first one, but rarely the second. This applies equally to a regular action movie or, in this case, one of the martial arts type. When you end up watching a good action movie you will remember these two things: the action sequences and the characters.

In the case of the Raid, you might remember several of the fight sequences, all of these very well made, from the stunt men to the direction and editing. Now here comes the problem, you are not going to remember a single character, and if you do, do you remember their motivations? See, in an action movie, both the good guys and the bad guys need motivations to fuel what they do. You could say this applies to any other movie as well. For the sake of keeping things simple, an action movie doesn't need complex motivations, but at least it needs the most basic ones in order to make us care about what is going on.

The Raid lacks characters with motivations, so all we are left with are extended action sequences that go on and on. The movie suffers from this mantra of "more is better" and it throws away proper pacing in exchange for non-stop senseless and aimless action sequences. Is not enough to have people shooting and fighting and stuff exploding, you need something behind the mayhem. The Raid gives us nothing, no character to care about. Every single character is interchangeable.

It has become a cliché to say that a movie sometimes looks like a video game, and it's ironic considering how hard many games these days try to look like a movie. The Raid truly feels like a game, one in the vein of those arcade beat em ups like Final Fight, Double Dragon, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Streets of Rage and so on. We get a brief intro, usually a girl being kidnapped, we get a hero to choose and there you go, beat everyone on your path. Also, while you can forgive many things in the plot of an action movie, the movie just gets dumb for the sake of it. The bad guy has cameras everywhere, yet he can't pin a single guy, and he sends just a small group of people, none of them with guns. Some have machetes, but why would they want to use that when they could just gun down the few remaining good guys? Oh right, there wouldn't be any fight sequences left. Is like if in Die Hard Hans decided to tell his goons to look for Mclaine with knifes because that's more "honorable" or something like that.

If you are an action aficionado you will dig this, no question about it, but i don't think you will remember much of it. Again, the fights are very well done, far better than in Merantau, but the emptiness of the story and the characters will just make you feel that way, empty. It's like a very tasty fast-food snack that just won't satisfy your hunger. Good for a while, but in the longer term, you want something that has more meat to eat.

Mr Oshii is the kind of director you can't fully dislike; the man has some interesting ideas, he knows how to create mood, yet at the same time he suffers of a severe case of minimalistic obsesivus. Staring at a character staring at the sky for 5 minutes is not deep, is not provoking, is just...boring, and dull.

There's little to no plot here, pilots that never grow old seem to be fighting in ambigous conflicts for corporations. They are mercenaries for hire, and we take a peek at their rather dull and not very interesting lifes. Fighting, going back to the hangar, visiting prostitutes and repeat. Character interaction, dialogues and, well, anything that looks like movement, or that could approach an engaging situation, remains as short as possible. What was the movie trying to say? That war is senseless and endless and it makes you feel nothing after a while and...something else? Who knows, and sadly, who cares, because it's impossible to care about this movie, or even remember much of it.

Why indeed? How could the maker of a fantastic movie as Tears of the Black Tiger end up doing such a cliché, dull, and idiotic action flick? Not even the action is well directed, suffering from the jerky-camera syndrome of this day and age. The script is such a mess, why the year 2016? The eco-friendly message is forced and preachy, the characters are one dimensional, from the goofy detective to the bad guys, and the pacing is off and all over the place. Then comes the ending and slaps you in the frigging face. Sorry mr wisit but if you need two entire movies to tell such a broken story you are doing something wrong.

Is not a movie you hate so much as a movie you want to pat in the back. We really don't need another "gritty" reboot of a super hero, we just need a well made action/adventure flick.