I really loved the original Raid. It caught me completely off-guard and was such a simple movie with wild action. The Raid 2: Berandal is almost the complete opposite: a film with lofty goals in which I had high expectations of more wild action. To keep it simple: Expectations made.

Sure, you have a 2+ hour film telling a fairly familiar crime story of betrayal and daddy issues. But within those two hours you meet interesting characters, albeit characters designed to fight in exciting ways. You’ve also got some very sick fight and action sequences, wonderful cinematography and camera direction, and for a long movie, it never felt long.

In some ways, it’s better than the goofiness of some of Tony Jaa’s work, on the other, it barely holds a candle to iconic scenes in those films. What I respect is that director/writer, Gareth Evans, went for a story bigger than “guys running up a staircase” and in the end, delivered. It may not be The Godfather, but it has its own special sauce… and makes me super excited to see The Raid 3.