The Raid Serbuan maut

Story

Jakarta, the present day. Rama (Iko Uwais) is a member of a SWAT team tasked with bringing down drugs lord Tama Riyadi (Ray Sahetapy) in a raid on the building he occupies in a slum area. For the past 10 years the building has been a no-go area for the police and is full of Riyadi's men, junkies, and assorted criminal trash. As he leaves his seven-months'-pregnant wife on the day in question, Rama says to his father, "I'll bring him back." The team is led by the experienced Jaka (Joe Taslim) and is under the command of grizzled police chief Lieutenant Wahyu (Pierre Gruno). The plan is to fight up through the building, via the 9th floor drugs factory, until the team reaches Riyadi's HQ on the 15th, where he controls operations with two sidekicks, crazed fighter Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian) and operational brains Andi (Donny Alamsyah). All goes according to plan until some child spotters on the 5th floor sound the alarm, and the squad finds itself trapped on the 6th.

Review

After singlehandedly reintroducing the martial arts movie to Indonesian cinema with his second feature, Merantau Merantau (2009), local-based Welshman Gareth Huw EVANS ditches his interest in the archipelago's lore with the out-and-out action movie The Raid Serbuan maut, again showcasing Merantau's discovery, 28-year-old Iko UWAIS. Not called upon this time to do much more than what he does best, the boyish-faced Uwais acquits himself fine in the well-staged fights but is still overshadowed as a screen personality by the rest of the key cast (largely playing villains). As a wannabe Indonesian version of Thailand's Tony JAA ทัชชกร ยีรัมย์, Iwais still needs a vehicle tailored more closely to his metrosexual persona, and the answer may be something between the extremes of Merantau's spiritual/physical journey and the western-style brutality of The Raid.

The pared-down "plot" is no more than a SWAT team fighting its way floor-by-floor through a drug lord's dingy HQ — an idea that's basically a finale stretched to fill a whole feature. It's not original — Bruce LEE 李小龍's unfinished Game of Death 死亡遊戲 (1978) travelled up a building, while the French cops-vs.-zombies thriller The Horde (La horde, 2009) travelled down through one — but that doesn't matter, as the idea is only a clothesline on which to hang a series of action sequences. For the first hour, the latter are good but nothing very special. The film finally comes alight when martial arts choreographer Yayan RUHIAN, playing a completely crazed sidekick of the drug lord, takes on SWAT team leader Jaka (played by local judo champion Joe TASLIM, from horror movie Karma (2008)) in a ferocious fight.

Ruhian — who played the most interesting supporting character in Merantau but was robbed of his best fight scene in the film's shorter international cut — is the main reason for watching The Raid. When his character and Iwais' finally meet, it's a superb showdown on every level; but it's Ruhian, playing a rabid animal crossed with a fighting machine, who's the centre of attention, not Uwais. Other roles are standard cut-outs: soap-opera veteran Pierre GRUNO as a bent police boss, movie veteran Ray SAHETAPY as the slobbering drug lord, and Donny ALAMSYAH (9 Dragons 9 naga (2006), Merantau) as his operational sidekick.

On a technical level the film deliberately goes for a grungy, muddy look in Evans' regular d.p. Matt FLANNERY and Dimas Imam Subhono's photography, plus grey-blue, underlit sets by designer Moti D. Setyanto (also from the team of the very different-looking Merantau). Editing by Evans himself is fine, recalling the best bits of Merantau (the roof chase, the lift fight) and letting the martial arts choreography breathe rather than rely on fast cutting. The perfectly serviceable score is for some reason to be replaced for US distribution.

Though a US remake is under discussion, Evans is wisely concentrating on making a sequel instead. Having proved he can do a dirty, in-your-face action movie that plays to the western gallery, he'll hopefully come up with something more original and character-driven next time around. The film's Indonesian title means Death Invasion.