A must have!
Summary
The Raid remains one of the best action movies of recent times and this 4K remaster is the cleanest the film has ever looked; there are plenty of special features, but this is worth picking up simply for the film itself.
Plot: A rookie member of an elite team of commandos, Rama (Iko Uwais) is instructed to hang back while his comrades-in-arms go ahead with their mission to take down a brutal crime lord called Tama (Ray Sahetapy). However, the team’s cover is blown, and Tama offers sanctuary to every criminal in his high-rise apartment block in exchange for the cops’ heads. Now Rama must take command and lead his remaining team on an ultraviolent charge through the building to complete — and survive — the mission.
Review: The Raid: Redemption is one of the all-time great action movies as it essentially reinvented the genre and without it, I doubt we’d have got movies like John Wick.
Director Gareth Evans has just released the film with a new colour upgrade, and it now looks incredible. The colours are far more vibrant where they were a little drab previously and like the Conan Chronicles this is a perfect example of how 4K can work at making films look the way they should. Clearly a lot of time and effort has gone into this restoration, and it shows with every gorgeous frame.
What can we say about The Raid: Redemption that hasn’t already been said? It brought the martial art silat into the mainstream, but also introduced the world to Iko Uwais and Joe Taslim who have since become stars in their own rights. Before anyone says it, I’m aware Merantau came out first, but it was The Raid which became mainstream. I never knew The Raid was actually a thing back in the 90’s where it was going to be an animated show with similar characters and scenes. You get an old trailer in this set which was really cool.
There isn’t much in terms of memorable dialogue or intense character development, but what we do get is an hour and 40 minutes of some of the best action ever committed to film. The fight scenes are still jaw dropping and were unlike anything we had really seen previously. It’s perfectly paced and the final showdown between Rama (Iko Uwais), his brother and Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian) is so desperate that you feel like you’re right in the thick of it. What’s so great about the action in this movie is that it feels scary and that every moment Rama and his squad are genuinely battling for survival, it jumps off the screen.
The violence is brutal and really changed the way fight scenes were done in Hollywood after the dark times of movies copying the Bourne franchise. We want to see what’s happening in our fight scenes and now we feel like we are actually in them.
Mad Dog is one of the best villains in recent years as he only has a few lines of dialogue, but Yayan Ruhian moves inhumanly fast and the way he destroys Joe Taslim in their climactic fight is devastatingly effective.
There are a good few hours of special features to get through although some of them we have already seen before, but watching Evans explain how they did the floor drop sequence is an eye opener. I still wish we’d got to see his Deathstroke movie as it could have been something special. Anyway, this 4K Steelbook is simply worth picking up for the movie itself which just looks amazing now.
Many have complained about the music used in the Redemption version of The Raid, but I always thought it worked well and added to the intensity of the action.
Overall, The Raid: Redemption 4K Steelbook is essential for fans of these movies; this is still one of the greatest action movies of recent times and reinvented the genre when it really needed it. The picture on this 4K is so much clearer with more vibrant colours making this a must own.
SPECIAL FEATURES
4K ULTRA HD DISC
- Unrated version of the feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision, approved by director Gareth Evans
- Indonesia/Bahasa Atmos + Indonesia/Bahasa & English 5.1 audio
BLU-RAY DISC™
- Unrated version of the feature presented in high definition
- 5.1 Indonesian and English audio
- Special Features:
- Commentary with Gareth Evans
- Behind-the-Scenes Video Blogs
- Inside the Score
- In Conversation with Gareth Evans and Mike Shinoda
- An Evening with Gareth Evans, Mike Shinoda and Joe Trapanese
- Behind the Music with Mike Shinoda and Joe Trapanese
- Anatomy of a Scene with Gareth Evans
- Claycat’s The Raid
- The Raid TV Show Ad (circa 1994)
- Theatrical Trailer
