MovieChat Forums > Serbuan maut 2: Berandal (2014) Discussion > How on earth can people prefer this mess...

How on earth can people prefer this mess to orginal???

posted 9 years ago by cfletcher-iw
39 replies | jump to latest

I was shocked when I saw the high score of 8.1 for this movie and I was even more shocked that it scored significantly higher than the excellent first movie!

I've watched The Raid 2 twice just to be sure, but my initial reaction didn't change - this sequel is a mess and it feels like they quickly churned this out in a rush to capitalize on the success of the first film.

Don't get me wrong, this is still a decent film, but I think it's worse than The Raid 1 in just about every way. The pacing is all wrong this time around - there's too many stop-start moments that break up the flow, with many sections just plain boring. The story isn't very good. The "overambitious son wants to take over from his father" feels tired and specific plot points are confusing and it's hard to keep track of some of the characters and their names. This also damages the viewing experience during the action sequences...

At several points there were frantic fight scenes going on - but I had very little idea of what was going on or why they were even fighting. Without a clear, solid plot to back it up it's just a load of random violence for no reason. Within the first few minutes Rama gets attacked by about 15 people in a toilet, but there's no explanation as to why they were attacking him in the first place! A bad guy from the first movie is mysteriously back alive and well - though I'm guessing that he's supposed to be a different character (so yet another poor element to this film that adds confusion). Also, why is Rama in prison for over 2 years when the plan was for 3 months? There's so many plot holes or sections like this that aren't explained clearly that by the end I couldn't give a *beep* what happened to any of the characters.

As I say it's not a bad movie, it's just much much worse than the first and it would have been so much better if the actual "raid" element came much sooner in the movie. After all the film is called The Raid then the actual raid part is rushed through in about 5-8 minutes near the end to make way for all the boring plot earlier on 

[–] lycosa 9 years ago

I think this is about as good as the older one, the first one. Both about equally good to me. Maybe the first one a little better though, it had more fighting and the house fighting was so epic.

[–] choppersears 9 years ago

No offence, but it seems like you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

[–] leopoldfrank-1 9 years ago

I agree overall. I too thought Raid 2 was a bit of a mess. All over the place. Too much of everything. Too much plot, too much action, too many characters etc etc. TOO DAMN MUCH.

Raid 1 was a much more streamlined tidy concept film.

[–] Skibidido 9 years ago

I also have to agree. I still liked this one but I did prefer the original. This one had more focus on the story. The first one had a simple story and let the action be the focus. Im all for movies with great stories, but you watch these movies for the action scenes. The simple story in the first works in its favor. I also liked the set up in the original.

[–] theyellowsquad 9 years ago

How?

[–] radicalein 9 years ago

Is it worse ? Is it better ?

I think both are almost different in genre, with fights and returning character are the only two things to remind you're still watching The Raid, and it is still the story of Rama...

Redemption (wtf it is called Redemption ?!!) is about raid gone wrong movie, the plot itself demands faster pace : survival, gunfights, fistfights, knifefights.

Berandal is a crime drama movie.
All respect to Gareth Evans for making the fights works, but eventually fights must be limited to some room for drama to highlight the strong point of the antagonists : cunning maneuver and men manipulation.

Then there is the proposed Raid 3... which I read Evans said would be different...
Hopefully it is not musical comedy, but whatever it is, the fights will have to make some room to accomodate the new stuffs

-----------
Bonasera, bonasera... why so serious ?

[–] MrSelfPaid 9 years ago

I know how you feel. The original was groundbreaking and the trailer for the sequel got me pumped up... until I saw the movie. Great fight scenes but it lost the rawness, edge, and survivors mentality that the original had. I felt something was missing and upon second viewing I knew that this movie was trying too hard to be a classic by infusing a lot of different themes. Good but not great. The original was better.

[–] saschaprofi 9 years ago

100% agree, that's exactly how I feel about it and I dont get it why the sequel has a higher score

The Raid: 9/10
The Raid 2: 7/10

[–] hot_action_ninja 9 years ago

Well no duh, of course the original is better. It had Mad Dog.

Is it strange that I had an erection during that scene?

[–] RBForrest 9 years ago

Ok, The Raid 2 is not a mess. It was written prior to the first one and took months upon months of polishing once the funding was made available to film it. The fighting style in The Raid 2 is different and much more brutal than the first, the acting was much better, the story was not at all riddled with holes (I know you all have a hard time reading subtitles, but let me assure you it's all there) and was very engaging. Hell even my wife thought of it as one of the greatest films ever made and she doesn't like anything I do. I even saw her standing up, yelling and cheering in the movie theater.

Yes, the first movie is more concise and too the point, but of course it is. It was made from the budget they had to the the 2nd movie but could not afford. So we got an all new movie that just showed the action of film making of GH Evans. Don't get me wrong, when I came out of the theater after seeing The Raid I thought nothing better could ever have been made...alas, The Raid 2 was just miles better.

Have any of you actually seen actor Iko Uwais and Director GH Evans first movie Merantau? If you need more The Raid like fix (actually story-wise it's closer to Ong Bak) see that!

[–] yarik83 9 years ago

Problem with this movie is that it should never have been called raid 2.

Marantau was effectively an intro into the whole fighting genre. Raid 1 was justifiably called a raid because it was a raid. Raid 2 should have been called "Rama" or something of the sort. You can't call something a raid when there is no raid. As a standalone movie without title of raid 2... it would have made much more sense.