10/19/18 - The Night Comes For Us 6/10

The Raid meets A Bittersweet Life/Man From Nowhere is a pretty simple way to state it. Mobster takes on the mob after disobeying orders and saving a child he was meant to kill. Easy peezy, fist-meets-skull squeezy. You know exactly what you are in for and it doesn’t pull many punches or make you wait; this film delivers with the blows and the bodies. Unfortunately, it lacks any real emotional connections or interstitial presence. This is a tremendous fight choreography show, but it failed to deliver the purpose behind those punches that would have made it a fantastic film instead of a kick-ass action spectacle. It is good, but it could have been truly worthy.

The actions set pieces are pretty stellar, but just the smallest inkling to the thought process of Triad betrayal would be helpful. As would some of the mythology/inner workings of these organizations because I got a bit lost as to who and what were killing who and what and, maybe most importantly, why. The hierarchy and relationships at play are ill defined and I am still left wondering, while the ones that have some blatant backstory are pretty superficial.

Some really beautiful and tremendously done scenes, which are often overcome by tropey bs (I hate the horror “cut someone, but they don’t realize it until it is cinematically pertinent” gag). I also grow weary of “the righteous can sustain 3x the injuries that put down the Redshirt thugs” gimmick. Similarly, upping the ante gets so ridiculous. These walking unkillable gladiators strain belief. It happens so often in these films, but it seems the thing that separates the truly great warriors is their ability to keep taking punishment and keep going. It is a genre gripe and only really chaps my hide when they don’t retain the injuries from earlier in the film. Wick does that well. I thought The Raid did that decently. This though, it falls into the cliched trap too readily. It isn’t a killer but certainly a body blow when it should have dodged the punch.

They sacrifice plot and character for kick ass fight scenes, which are filmed and choreographed quite well. Perhaps not with the effortless iconography & splendor of Gareth Evans (The Raid) or Chad Stahelski (John Wick), but certainly strong and well thought out. If anything, this film is an awesome ride for a craft starved action fanatic. Tjahjanto and Uwais know what they are doing and it does come off with intensity and skill. What this film lacks is the intellectual gusto that pushes it into the next level of action films. It couldn’t quite defeat the opponent of apathy beyond “this is cool”. It has its place and will please, but I wanted it to jump to that next rung.

Aside: Is Iko Uwais the best martial arts action star working today? He is so good here and in general that I think he might be. Tony Jaa and Donnie Yen haven’t mailed it in yet, but Uwais just keeps getting the job done, in varied roles (well, never too varied). I am pretty locked in to see just about anything that has Uwais in it/behind the scenes.