The Night Comes for Us

For those who thought that The Raid 1 & 2 were the last word in kinetic, ultra-brutal martial arts movies, think again: The Night Comes For Us, from director Timo Tjahjanto, is a strong contender for the most excessively violent, blood-drenched action flick ever made. The film's many fight scenes are wonderfully choreographed and flawlessly executed, Tjahanto's breath-taking direction employing shooting techniques that are guaranteed to astound, although it's the sheer quantity of blood and guts that really impresses.

The film stars Joe Taslim as triad member Ito, who seeks redemption for all the terrible things that he has done by saving a young girl, Reina (Asha Kenyeri Bermudez), from his hit squad. Having gunned down his own men and escaped with the girl, Ito finds himself targeted by the triad's top killers, who include Raid star Iko Uwais as his old pal Arian, Julie Estelle (The Raid 2's Hammer Girl) as a motorcycle-riding assassin, and a pair of lesbian hit-women: Elena (Hannah Al Rashid), who is armed with a kukri knife, and Alma (Dian Sastrowardoyo), who wields a whirling wire weapon.

As Ito, aided by his loyal friends Bobby (Zack Lee), Fatih (Abimana Aryasatya) and Wisnu (Dimas Anggara), battles to protect Reina, viewers are treated to all manner of graphic violence: bodies are beaten and mutilated, necks are slashed, and bones are broken. A man is hung on a meathook, someone is machine gunned in the face, and a grenade rips another poor bloke to pieces. There's a shotgun blast to the foot, a knife through the neck, a severed hand, an evisceration, pool balls to the skull, a hook in the crotch, a utility knife in the mouth (and through the cheek), and more bullet hits and stabbings than I can recall. The stuntwork is amazing and it's hard to believe that no-one was seriously injured.

The carnage is so spectacular that it's easy to forgive the simplicity of the plot (the narrative is not nearly as involved as The Raid 2; it's more akin to the original Raid movie in terms of complexity).

My first thought when I saw this one released: New Iko Uwais movie? Must see!

And boy did I get more and more disappointed the longer the movie went on. "The Raid" was a good example of really good mass fight choreography where 20 vs. 1 didn't mean 19 people waiting and it actually being twenty 1 on 1 fights. This movie is the PERFECT example of twenty opponents awaiting their turn to get slaughtered. There is not a lot of finesse, this movie is all about gore and maximum brutallity, leaving the "good" guys shredded to pieces and continue fighting in an absolutely unbeliebavble state of injury.

If you are able to COMPLETELY suspend ANY disbelief, your totally fine with oponents in fight scenes doing the pause after one move until the good guy destroys them routine, mass fights with bad guys attack one after another, and don't need any kind of story when it's a good gorefest, then this is for you.

That said... Purely as a gorefest it is fantastic! Blood and guts everywhere, bodyparts are getting cut off, places get totally trashed, tons of broken bones in almost every scene, more cuts and slices than in any butcher shop - oh wait, except for the butcher shop scene in this one :) - and did I mention BLOOD, BLOOD, BLOOD? For the artistic and imaginative gorefest it is, I gave it 5 stars

Alas I expected more of a martial arts movie featuring Iko Uwais having seen his other movies with way better and more believable choreography, so this was a huge disappointment for me. And for my taste they were trying so very much too hard to make this look and feel like one of the classic heroic bloodshed movies John Woo did in his earlier career, going waaay over the top with it, there were moments I felt a bit digusted at that.

Bottom line: Great for gorelovers, painful if suspension of disbelief doesn't come easy for you, so and so for martial arts fans.

The Night Comes For Us had always been in my movie watch list since it's been announced in 2014 after Mo Brothers released Killers. It planned to involve some of "The Raid" series veterans like Joe Taslim as the main character, Arifin Putra seemed to be the main antagonist, and Yayan Ruhian as an undisclosed role. The project was then somehow put to halt for some reasons and Mo Brothers went on another project which's Headshot (2016) and there's a plan of The Night Comes For Us being adapted into a graphic novel instead. After the release of Headshot, it turned out only 1 of Mo Brothers, Time who's gonna continue and direct The Night Comes For Us and it seemed Iko Uwais & Sunny Pang're replacing Arifin & Yayan.

It's a well known plot formula about a bad guy/henchman who seeks a redemption after meeting an innocent child. Many interesting characters, the small ones as well. Particularly are the main characters, Ito played by Joe. Joe did a good job to be the lead bad-ass protagonist but quite standard, i must say. Arian played by Iko is definitely the most interesting character, he has the most thorough back story that gives him a moral questions, which surprised me. Clearly not your usual villain type of character. And there's the Operator played by Julie Estelle the badass babe, a mysterious female character who can kick some serious butts. I'd agree wholeheartedly with some other viewers who suggest that The Operator must have her own movie. Just off the top of my head, i think it's my most favourite female character from action films with gore. I want to see the character again with more screen time.

The action is very bloody and brutal, it has a good usage of some of the stuff that we usually see around and they're being well implemented to add more pain. The plot's good enough, it has a 50:50 balance between dialogs and action scenes as the main highlights. It has plenty of great "Ouch" & "Wth" moments for the viewers, however i must say there are some bits that are just too appropriate & convenient for a film. And i'm not talking about the use of weapons and firearms but some of the approaches that the goons use to attack. I'd assume that it's typical in films when there are multiple attackers but somehow it's just too comical and laughable for me. The amazing choreographed fights, love them. The final fight gets very technical, 100% a real treat for martial arts film fans. It's also rather refreshing to hear more Indonesians not only use Indonesian language but also foreign languages such as English, Chinese, & a bit of French too and they're not so forced but rather fitting for the plot. It might be a little nuisance to some of the native speakers to understand what they're saying but subtitles always help. This film is definitely set to have a sequel, just by mentioning things that can be explored more such as "Old Tiger", "Six Seas", and for sure, the ending.

I'd say this movie tops Timo's previous action film and it is recommended especially for those who are familiar & interested with contemporary Indonesian action films, even those who are just big fans of action slasher films may appreciate it.

A very well done action film.

7/10

You think you've seen it all? Action, blood, guts, brains, bullets, body parts, broken teeth, sliced fingers, chopped heads, smashed heads, broken skulls, broken bones, protruding bones, hmmm? Think you've seen it all? SMH ... you haven't... until you watch this film.

Watchers beware, this film is not for the faint of heart. If you plan on becoming an active war medic, or a member of the cartel torture squad... well you get my point. ..

This is my fifth Indonesian action movie. Unfortunately, all of them have one problem: no heart to the story. I can't relate to the characters, I don't care if they live or die, I don't even know their motivation.

This movie, like the other Indonesian action movies, rely too much on blood and gore. The plot, pfft, out the window.