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.

I've been needing a good insane action movie fix for a while now, and this was definitely it. Once this movie ramps up, it never comes back down. Nonstop incredible action all the way through. This film is amazing at using its surroundings to its advantage. A fight scene in a butchers room? Every cleaver, slab of meat, meat hook, and bone becomes a weapon. Fight next to a pool table? Pool balls and pool sticks used in the most brutal way possible. The fight choreography is phenomenal and I was almost convinced they were just beating the piss out of the actors. This movie is such a brutal and fun time, a great movie to watch with a room full of energetic friends.

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.

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.

It's definitely a good martial arts/ action film but not as good as the 2 Raid films which are kind of similar style to this one.

E.g Some reviewers say that's the raid 3 but it is not. It's story and characters are unrelated.

It's mostly different because It Lacks Pace.

Also it looses points because of the effort to give some depth in the characters and a background story, which doesn't really work well here and makes the film longer than it should be.

However, it's still a relentless and impressive action film with a couple of memorable fight scenes.

Violence and gore are everywhere but somewhat less than the Raid. Still, be prepared.

But if you really like this film and have not seen the Raid yet...you d better get to it!

And if you're thinking if you should watch this film but still haven't seen the Raid... then skip this and start first with the Raid!

6,9/10 Iko Uwais is a master of the arts n crafts.