Premise: A young man from a small village in Indonesia goes to Jakarta and finds himself battling a local crime boss to protect a young woman and her small brother.
Gareth Evans' 2011 movie The Raid kicks ass and should be watched by everyone who is a fan of movies where guys fight their way out of a building full of bad guys. The only reason not to watch it is if you can't deal with much onscreen violence. The sequel (The Raid 2) loses some of the simplicity of the first movie but makes up for it in escalating ambition in the fight sequences. I've known for years that Evans had this earlier film, Merantau, that completes this Indonesia action crime trilogy. I needed to see it.
Merantau is a bit harder to come by than the Raid movies, and it's easy to see why. This is a rougher movie. Evans hadn't quite mastered how to shoot star Iko Uwais yet or the pencak silat style of martial arts. Uwais is also noticeably green as an actor. So, Merantau isn't the adrenaline rush of The Raid, but few movies are. It's still pretty good as a martial arts movie. Uwais beats up a lot of goons and henchmen in creative ways. Evans doesn't let the film go too long without some good fights. This still gets way more out of Uwais than any American film has yet.
I'm glad I finally got to this movie, even if it's just to show off Evans' evolution as a director. This certainly makes me miss Evans' Martial Arts movies. Since The Raid 2, he's worked on other stuff like Welsh horror movie Apostle. I still need to see his Gangs of London series, but I assume it won't be as exciting.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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