The Raid 2: Berendal Review

Now that The Raid 2: Berendal is on wide release, I was finally able to sneak away from the monotony of my everyday life and watch this 2 and a half hour action thriller. So after anticipating this sequel for 2 years, I’m happy to report that this movie not only met my expectations but drastically exceeded them by raising and setting the bar so high that I find it hard to believe that it will ever be topped. The movie opens up with a series of flashbacks and flash forwards (I doubt that’s the proper term but who’s gonna to check me?!) between how and why Rama, (played by Iko Uwais) is currently imprisoned and what happened to the survivors of the first raid. During one of these flashbacks you find out that Rama’s brother Tama was brutally murdered, thus giving us the story at hand; or at least a part of it. What really shines in Berendal is the story. Simply put, Rama is tasked with infiltrating one of the mob’s strongest families and weeding out the crooked cops that are accepting pay offs from them. Even though the immediate plot seems very generic and plain, there are a many subplots that keep the movie going will keep the audience interested in what’s going on. There is SO much going on in this movie! From the internal mob conflict, to the territorial war between families, I found myself invested in everything that was going on. Now on to the REAL reason as to why people should see this movie; THE FUCKING FIGHT SCENES! If the story/plot was the shining point of Berendal, …