The Raid: Redemption was such a success and regarded by many people as one of the best action movies of 2012, and the sequel is likely to end the year 2014 as the best action movie of the year. It's pretty much different than the first movie, in this one there was actually a story. This movie is a great combination of a gangster flick with a very well coordinated martial arts.
The director Gareth Evans is masterful at filming incredible action sequences, probably better than ANY Hollywood directors working right now. It is inspiring how he managed to make such unbelievable fight scenes, and car chase in a such limited budget. The cast were good in delivering the good, the dialogue was fairly good, the choreography were Spectacular! Not to mention the unforgettable cinematography that was brilliantly managed by people who knows what they're doing.The only downside is perhaps the running time which could have been shortened 15-20 minutes, but you will still always be entertained while watching this movie.
Overall, The Raid 2 is arguably one of the best sequels ever, and even one of the best martial arts movies ever. It's superior to its predecessor in terms of story telling, considering the running time, and the choreography was also quite a bit improved from the already unforgettable moves in the first one. It had more action and violence than the previous one, although less action percentage-wise. It will keep you on the edge of your seat. It has everything a perfect martial arts movie has to have, and it deserves to be regarded as one of the best in its genre. I hope that the director Gareth Evans would make more films with a higher budget to showcase to the world his true potential as a director, and it'd be great to have it featuring Iko Uwais, that could be an icon for years to come.
