MOVIE REVIEW: RAID 2 BERANDAL (2014)

The sequel to the awesome Raid movie, the question was how do you top the original movie. Similar to Dredd, the Raid was about a bunch of police officers who went to raid a crimelords building. Of course, the crime lord found out they were coming and subsequently slaughtered most of them.

The original Raid movie was awesome because of the tight action sequences set in densely packed corridors. It felt like an action game brought to life well, which is no small compliment to the movie. And it managed to do this with a minimalist storyline. Minimalist doesn’t mean bad, however, as the storyline, like the action movie, was a tightly woven story of betrayal and justice as a rookie cop finally succeeds in his mission.

The Raid 2 begins where the Raid leaves off, with the main character, Rama, being recruited to go undercover to root out more crooked cops. Starting off in a prison, we are once again treated to some slick action sequences before the movie turns into a suspenseful crime drama of betrayal and corruption. This story is surprisingly engaging, and it still works on a minimalistic style. There isn’t a wasted detail or scene.

And then there is the finale. The set-up all leads to a showdown as a one-man army of Rama goes through a bunch of gangsters. Every action sequence is unique and brings something new to the table, from introducing cool new characters (such as hammer-girl) or, my favourite, when Rama is escaping from a car.

In short, The Raid 2 lives up and even surpasses the original in several areas. It runs at 150 minutes, but it feels like every line and scene achieved a point. The storyline was more involved without ever feeling bloated, and the action sequences were just as good, or even better than the original as they had allot more freedom in terms of locations and props.

5 out of 5 machete cut waffles.

MOVIE REVIEW: HERCULES (2014)

Hercules is the latest movie starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Based on the legend of Hercules, Son of Zeus, it feels like there was a much more interesting movie hidden away in the story of this movie. Unfortunately, Hercules feels like it is rushed, with several big reveals coming across as formulaic rather than shocking.

The big hook of this movie is that Hercules and his 12 labours are all propaganda for a bunch of mercenaries that Hercules leads. Hercules was once part of the Athenian army and all the labours he accomplished were actually hoaxes (or the like). Hercules than uses his reputation that he gained from these deeds to help him get work until he retires. Added to this is that everyone believes he murdered his family in a “battle-rage”.

And so then we are onto his last job, where he will earn his last amount of gold before he retires to the beach. Of course, things go wrong, he ends up being double-crossed, and he has to prove he is really the legend that the myths make him out to be. Add in a rushed reveal proving his innocence in killing his family, and the movie feels like it has just been going through the motions.

Hercules is a decent action movie. However, I feel like there was a more interesting movie in how Hercules built up the myth of himself. Instead, the movie seems to be trying to be as generic as possible. The twist, the proving of innocence and the big heroic moments all feel like they are being acted off Action-Script 101. It doesn’t do anything special, and all the cool parts in the trailer (Hercules fighting the Hydra and the Boar) are fully shown in the trailer.

At the end of the day, Hercules is a competent action movie. The more fantastical elements or interesting parts of the movie are left by the wayside to produce a generic movie. Hercules could have been so much more special than it was if it was a little less grounded in realism.

2 out of 5 demi-god Waffles.

MOVIE REVIEW: JUPITER ASCENDING (2015)

Jupiter Ascending came after a last minute delay to its release schedule. Starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, this movie is a mixture of space-opera and sci-fi. It has the general story about a chosen one just living a pretty underwhelming life in a world full of wonders.

Mila Kunis stars as the titular Jupiter, a Russian immigrant cleaner. However, she is also the exact genetic reproduction (and this believed to be reincarnation) of the former queen of the universe. He (former) children are each trying to find her so that they can trick her to signing away her inheritance. Channing Tatum is a wolf-soldier tasked with tracking her down. However, once he realises he was tricked, he turns into her superhuman protector and general bad-ass.

And that really is the meat of the story. Jupiter is kidnapped a few times, shows increasing agency in not throwing her inheritance away (which would mean the death of the earth as it is harvested for genetic material), and having Channing Tatum do cool stuff with his futuristic technology (such as rocket boots and temporary doorways) to save her. Which isn’t to say it is all bad.

Jupiter Ascending does an admirable job of keeping the movie pace up and not being caught up to much in world-building. It would have been easy for the movie to get stuck on some part of the lore it is building up. However, a couple of action scenes do overstay their welcome and seem to drag out a bit just to show some cool set-piece instead of letting it develop organically.

Overall there is not much to say about this movie. The lore they build up behind the worlds is quite good, the action scenes are also quite good and the character development of Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum is also good. It was entertaining for its 2+ hour run-time, but not too much stuck with me following the end credits. In the past, it is the very definition of an average movie. Today, however, it is a refreshing movie that is not a sequel/reboot/remake and not a superhero movie.

3.5 out of 5 wolf-spliced waffles.