The Shadow Strays

If it weren't for a meandering third act I would have easily given this film 10 stars.

I don't know how this film is rating so poorly. This film is one spectacular scene after another. The choreography unique, brutal and beautiful. Beyond the action we have a run of the mill revenge plot but it works. The character motivations are simple but extremely effective. The Silat is the best I've seen since the Raid films.

As I mentioned before the final act is underwhelming. The pacing in the first two acts was amazing but everything breaks down near the end. Still if you are looking for a straight forward action film look no further.

From the director of The Night Comes For Us & May the Devil Take You comes a vicious, violent & vengeful action thriller that delivers on the action front with its no-holds-barred approach yet is undermined by its needlessly overlong & half-baked story that actually could've done without a whole subplot. Within its bloated 145 mins runtime, there is a lean n mean 90 mins action film that would've sufficed.

Written & directed by Timo Tjahjanto (Killers & Headshot), The Shadow Strays concerns a young assassin who goes on a killing rampage to save a boy from a crime syndicate. Tjahjanto's direction is lot better than his writing, for the action set pieces & fight choreography are utterly impressive but the dramatic portion is weak, character bits lack depth, storytelling is mediocre, plus it piles up extra baggage for no reason.

The picture would've been thoroughly gripping if it was solely focused on a single tightly-knitted plot instead of branching out in multiple directions and didn't need to be as long as it turned out to be, for it unnecessarily complicated a simple, straightforward premise. Performances are fine when it comes to the physicality of the roles but isn't compelling on the emotional front. And the journey also gets repetitive after a while.

Overall, The Shadow Strays is packed with bloody, intense & gruesome scenes of carnage but there is also a much better film buried beneath all the insipid attempts at creating a sprawling crime drama at which it fails. The story is at its most gripping when it features our protagonist slice, dice, stab & slash her way through endless bodies and yet every time the film decides to take a breather, the interest fizzles out and it all comes to a standstill.

It's a cool action movie with some particularly graphic violence to accompany the well-choreographed action scenes. And by graphic violence, I mean some of the killings of standard action-movie henchmen reach body-horror levels of brutality. The story is reasonably straightforward: an elite assassin gets suspended from active duty after fumbling a mission. She soon finds new purpose in protecting/avenging a local kid. Performances are good, there's lots of wild action and the story is familiar but compelling. Unfortunately it gets bogged down in an extraneous subplot at the start of the third act and said subplot subsumes the finale.

Let me just say the movie is worth a watch for sure. It has great fight scenes and a cliche but serviceable plot. My main issue with this movie is the finale and just how silly it gets. There is a big shootout in the movie that is just horribly done and every sequence that involves a gun is badly done. There is not consistency or any realism to it. Now don't get me wrong I'm not looking for any realism in this movie but at some point it just starts to get jarring. It also drags on for way to long, there is another sequence after the main finale that should just have been cut. It's another one of those movie that suffers from a horrible final act. Overall it's a great first time watch but I personally wouldn't rewtach. The Night Comes for Us is the better movie for sure.

Now this is awesome action movie. There was no such action movie since Raid 1-2. But it was more brutal then Raid's. This is not for those with weak stomachs , because here you have some scenes which can easily be part of some slasher horror. But don't get me wrong. This movie was not some meaningless violence flick. O no,he is much more then that. Storyline was very good for action movie and acting was great,especially from lead actors. Music is very good to .And I like this director,he is good. I like him since Macabre. He was mostly horror director,but then came When the Night Come For Us where he chainge his course and it was great turning. And now he gave us somenthing like this.

Action scenes are fantastic. Fighting coreography is great. One of the best fighting scenes since allways. So if you like action movies this is must watch for you!!!