This movie has been intriguing me for quite some time due to its trailer that raised all sort of possibilities. And there was also the very smart marketing done, whereas the movie did not play in Jakarta until 8th of December but it did play in other cities from the past two weeks which created the anxiety of the big cities movie enthusiasts. I wanted to see this movie on that premiere date as well but due to some reasons I could only see it today. So what was the story all about on this film? Let's continue, shall we?
Brief Story Line
Movie started with the scene of some bad guy broke out of jail leaving trail of bodies of his fellow inmates as well as the prison guards. Scene later on moved to 2 months later when a young doctor named Ailin (Chelsea Islan - Merry Riana: Mimpi Sejuta Dolar, 3 Srikandi etc) was trying to nurture a coma patient to health. As she did not know the name of this patient, she came up with a name Ishmael which she felt suited him. He would soon woke up from his coma but he could not remember who or where he was and why he was injured.
Thinking that his name was really Ishmael (played by Iko Uwais - Merantau, The Raid, Star Wars: The Force Awakens etc), the patient resume this identity. Dr. Ailin tried to analyze what happened to Ishmael by using MRI where it was found out there was an injury to his brain which caused his amnesia. Ishmael was also informed by Ailin that she was found ashore by a fisherman named Romli. Even though he could not remember anything, Ishmael always had glimpses of his past which seemed to be violent ones. Ailin wanted to bring Ishmael back to Jakarta where the hospital was having better equipment to treat his amnesia, but he insisted that he wanted to find out who he really was.
Meanwhile, the bad guy from early scene who was revealed to be named Lee (Sunny Pang) was having a meeting with another gang and for some reasons the 2 gangs would fight. Lee was supported by some of his trusted members consisted of Tejo (David Hendrawan) & Tano (Zack Lee - The Raid 2), Besi (Veri Tri Yulisman) and Rika (Julie Estelle - The Raid 2, Filosofi Kopi etc). After the fight was over, a low level thug from the other gang informed Lee that there was rumor about a man who was found at the beach and brought to a hospital. He was assigned to find out about this rumor.
After seeing that the rumor was true, Tejo and Tano tried to capture Ishmael who they saw went in a bus together with Ailin. They immediately went after the bus to catch Ishmael, and all hell break loose when Ishmael had to help Ailin from all the bad guys.
So could Ishmael save Ailin? Could he find out his real identity and why was he being chased after Lee? What relationship could he possibly had with those Lee's gang members who were so persistent in capturing or even killing Ishmael? Find them all in this thrilling full action movie.
End of Brief Story Line
As an action movie, this one was quite over the top. The action coreographies were done superbly by Iko Uwais (who had a real pencak silat ability) and his team. I love the fighting scenes and there were so many of them that you would be left breathless watching them. They were all brutal and the length of each fight scenes were mostly just perfect. Except for the fight scene with Tejo and Tano which I personally felt was too long. Ooh I also felt that the opening shooting scenes were too exaggerated and did not make sense. However, the rest of the fight scenes were cool! Even the one involving Julie Estelle (I think her fighting scenes here are much better than the ones in The Raid 2). If I had to single out though, my most favorite one would definitely be the "first part" of the final fight of Ishmael with Lee.
In addition to the cool fighting scenes, the movie was also filled with good sound effect & the music was surprisingly good. I personally love the end credit song which felt very peaceful. The make up effects were also pretty good, with the bruises, scars and everything really seemed believable. Another plus point was also the beautiful scenery as the movie were shot in Riau province instead of the congested Jakarta.
There were also some interesting smaller supporting roles in the movie, but the one that I believe really stood out was Romli (played by Epy Kusnandar who was famous for playing in the popular comedy TV series Suami Suami Takut Istri) which I really thought brought some needed lightening mood to an otherwise very serious tone of the movie. Please be reminded also that this is an action movie where the main attraction is the great fight coreography by Iko Uwais. Hence we should not expect a great story line or logic in this movie. It is just pure entertainment. One thing that I originally felt was a plot hole, appeared to be resolved in the ending part of the movie. So kudos on the writing part.
So if you are a fan of this kind of gore, bloody movie filled with various one on one fighting scenes plus some occasional group fight, then this one is definitely for you. However, this is not recommended for the weak heart audience or those who could not stand the sight of those brutal killing scenes. The censorship body was right when they put the category of 21+ of age, though it was surprising that in the theater that I watched, there was a child brought by their parents (such irresponsible folks). Anyway, this movie is currently playing in all cinema chains in Indonesia. You should be able to watch them quite easily.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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