Assault on the Apartment Block
Lt. Wahyu (Pierre Gruno) assembles his SWAT team for a special mission and forgets to tell them that this is not a sanctioned mission but one of his choosing. The mission involves the apartment building where tyrannical drug lord Tama (Ray Sahetapy) and his gang are holed up. The SWAT team manage to break in to the building but it is inside that they are spotted and now they find themselves stuck on the 7th floor, under attack and having to fight for their lives as they are out numbered and out gunned.
I remember a time when all a movie needed to entertain me was lots of graphic action, special effects and being well paced. I still enjoy that sort of movie but my tastes have evolved and now I need other ingredients like a decent storyline or engaging characters to garner the high praise I would have once given to a snappy action movie. As such having watched "The Raid" I can understand why many are impressed by this all out action movie as it is fast paced, snappy and yes I was impressed by the choreographed action, creativity and in a wave of nostalgia I enjoyed the violence.
But there was still something missing for me and the only way I can describe it is that watching "The Raid" is like watching someone else play a video game; yes it is fun when they beat up the baddies but you are not involved. The lack of an engaging storyline as well as characters causes the same problems in this movie because all you are left doing is to watch the unfolding carnage of numerous action scenes.
What this all boils down to is that I seem to have out grown movies like "The Raid" as whilst they impress visually the lack of an involving storyline is an issue which stops it from being the sort of movie I feel a desperate need to watch more than once.
