The Night Comes for Us

So the scenario... meh nothing interesting... A world-class killer becomes friendly, is chased down by his former colleagues, fights an old friend... saves a little girl... Seen this before. Barely any character development; the characters are a mixture of the Raid with Kill Bill. The acting's average. All the budget went for the thousands of fake blood and CGI that they used. Fights were too long, too bloody, too unreal, like literally 90% of the movie is blood, sweat, and more blood.

Pass.

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).

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. ..

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.

Yes, yes, I'll answer the question you'll have on your minds. And the answer is an affirmative, courteous AMEN cause the action in The Night Comes for Us is miraculous. This is A+, 10/10, The Raid level of action prowess. It's untoward however, that such an astonishing assemblage of top-notch combat spectacle was brewed with such an insipid and often, inattentive story. That's still not to say though, that I didn't thoroughly savor the heck out of a bulk of this movie's runtime.

It may be an irrefutable case that the storyline in The Night Comes for Us is underdeveloped, foreseeable, banal, and evidently myopic-character-wise especially. But am I looking for an occult, moving, tear-jerker of a film from director and writer Timo Tjahjanto? Helllllllllllllllllllllllll no. I'm searching for some brain-on-brain-off, let's behold some jaw-dropping, martial-arts-based, militant, warfare battles that embarrassingly generate me to scream out-loud "oh shoot" nearly every eight seconds. That adroit, transcendent, on-screen stunt choreography is what's going to stablizie my eyes glued upon a film parallel to this. Craziness included.

The Night Comes for Us is a senseless, mindless, gore-fested, and lionized action extravaganza. But you know what? I'm okay with that. Especially for A Netflix Original Movie standards "okay with that." (Verdict: B)