IMDb member for 11 years. Big fan of the martial arts genre. I can tell you that this movie improves everything we liked about the Raid movies and much more.
I wasn't so sure from the trailer and this being Iko's first film with no Gareth and Ruhian (Mad Dog) if it could be any better. But never worry, Iko took the best of what The Raid films had to offer and transcends the genre again.
As a whole, the film is the complete package. You get a story that is just about the other characters as it is the main one. Every performance is believable and emotional where everyone grows into their role. ** spoiler ** And no one is left out of the final acts of the film. 1 of the 2 brothers is actually deaf, Ailin is pulled from a world of healing to a world of killing, All the characters from Ishmael's life bring a different 'end product' to the Assassins Lee has created.
Violence wise you will not be disappointed. Past criticism of these top modern top martial arts movies is the lack of guns present in a violent world. Well this movie has all of that, like I mentioned the inspired 'Gang War deleted scene in The Raid 2' is prolonged and enhanced into the story in the first 5 minutes of this film! Blood spluttering, bodies riddled with bullets it really surpasses anything before it.
The Director knows how to show the modern use of guns, special effects, weapons and hand to hand getting it on camera in such a visceral way most of the shots being single rotating one takes and ALL of them being pulled back enough. The unarmed vs armed scenes are an eye to behold and is really more gritty yet still choreographed that it works.
There is so much to go on about this film. The main thing is the many improvements made from similar scenes in Iko's previous films - the set design, choreography, level of violence, mixed martial arts Kung fu, with MMA and Silat, etc - and attention to detail in every scene truly makes it the Martial Arts Action-er to beat in 2017.
And really the only one to do that is The Night Comes for Us (2017) by the same everyone involved in this film plus Ruhian and Joe Taslim. You've been warned!
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