The Raid 2
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: March 28, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubApr 3, 2014
Evans pays careful attention to atmosphere, while giving wide berth to cinematographers Dimas Imam Subhono and Matt Flannery, who find beauty among the mayhem. Everything on screen is crystal clear and vibrant, like a city street right after the rain. Read full review
100
The TelegraphAmber WilkinsonJan 24, 2014
Hyper-violent it may be but there is beauty in its brutality. Read full review
100
IndieWireRobert Cameron FowlerJan 24, 2014
If The Raid: Redemption was a thrashing drum solo, its sequel is the opulent symphony where every instrument is played with fevered inspiration. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezApr 10, 2014
Miraculously, the new picture makes the old one feel like Evans was just warming up. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 10, 2014
Wow. For those with strong constitutions, The Raid 2 offers one of the most intense motion picture experiences available; it may also be the most violent movie ever to be released into theaters. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramApr 3, 2014
If what you’re after is insane, mind-bogglingly violent martial arts action, “The Raid 2” is quite possibly the ultimate. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 27, 2014
The Raid 2 lets its warriors rip for two and a half thrilling hours. With the precision of dance and the punch of a KO champion, Evans keeps the action coming like nobody's business. The wow factor is off the charts. Read full review
84
Film.comWilliam GossJan 24, 2014
Good luck finding a modern martial-arts epic that can even hold a candle to it. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMar 26, 2014
The Raid 2 will make you feel like Christmas came nine months early. Some action sequels don't know when to say when. But here's one where too much is just the right amount. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJames RocchiJan 24, 2014
The Raid 2 brings the noise, but length, repetition and too much space also make it a slightly reduced echo of its predecessor. Read full review
80
EmpireNick de SemlyenApr 7, 2014
A bulkier, slower beast than Evans’ first film. But when it enters combat mode, it’s more raucously bloodthirsty than anything you’ve ever seen. Unless you’re Ross Kemp. Read full review
80
The DissolveNoel MurrayMar 25, 2014
The tedium of The Raid 2’s setup is offset by some of the most jaw-dropping, bone-crunching, flesh-ripping setpieces ever filmed. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJan 24, 2014
No other filmmaker on the planet can touch Evans for long-take beatdowns and wildly inventive flourishes. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJan 24, 2014
There are tradeoffs with the switch to a more epic, ambitious canvas, but Gareth Evans’ action sequel in most ways that count is an even more masterful jolt of high-energy genre filmmaking. Read full review
78
Paste MagazineMichael BurginJun 17, 2018
Though the addition of “extras” like multiple locations, a larger cast of non-fodder characters and oh, actual dialogue, makes The Raid 2 much less unique a film than its predecessor, it still registers as a pretty vibrant entry into the Yakuza genre. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiApr 9, 2014
The Raid 2 doesn’t so much raise the bar for action filmmaking as it pummels that bar into a mangled piece of metal that resembles nothing if not the gauntlet that’s been thrown down here. Just don’t forget to breathe. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Adam NaymanApr 10, 2014
Gareth Evans’s sequel to his surprise 2011 hit takes the original’s basic formula – lots of people pounding on each other in close quarters – and simply stretches it over a much longer running time. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickMar 26, 2014
Those with a high tolerance for violence and gore — at one point, Rama battles assassins labeled “Baseball Bat Man’’ and “Hammer Girl’’ simultaneously — will eat up The Raid 2. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMar 28, 2014
And yes, it’s all insanely, relentlessly gory. You could say (and some will) that the gratuitousness of the violence in The Raid 2 is a problem. But it all functions as part of the surreal dance of death. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMar 27, 2014
As inventive as the action sequences are, there are too many of them and they tend to go on far too long — the movie is just shy of two-and-a-half hours. Still, Evans' filmmaking has undergone some impressive fine-tuning for The Raid 2. It is something to see — if you have the stomach for it. Read full review
70
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldMar 27, 2014
The pleasant surprise of Gareth Evans’s sturdy sequel to “The Raid: Redemption” is that neither its undercover drama nor its two-and-a-half-hour length bog down the bracing, and numerous, fight fests. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirMar 27, 2014
Much as I enjoyed watching most of it, I was deeply grateful when it was over and feel no strong desire to see the inevitable “Raid 3.” Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangJan 24, 2014
It’s hard to shake a nagging feeling of more is less; with its convoluted plot mechanics clearly cribbed from past thriller templates, the film never quite generates or sustains its predecessor’s pure sense of menace. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubBen KenigsbergMar 26, 2014
The Raid 2 takes a substantially different tack from that of its 2011 predecessor, adding a convoluted plot and only intermittently attending to the sort of acrobatic ass-kicking for which the original became a global smash. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTom RussoApr 10, 2014
The film was technically astonishing and yet brazenly simple. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsApr 10, 2014
The plot is murky, the acting is melodramatic and the movie is way too long, but the target audience will salivate over the inventively choreographed set-pieces. Read full review
63
Washington PostMark JenkinsApr 3, 2014
The brawling itself is every bit as inventive and exhilarating this time around... The script and acting, however, prove less successful. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoMar 24, 2014
It's all showy viscera, no ballet, and wan attempts at the gravity of something like Drug War, with implicit statements made about the deadening nature of violence or the moral equivalency of state-sanctioned and criminal force, don't come close to cohering. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottApr 11, 2014
This newer installment is every bit its predecessor's match as far as action goes. Where it exceeds it, however, is in the between-the-fights moments. Read full review
60
The GuardianHenry BarnesJan 24, 2014
The Raid 2's faults are not in Evans's technique – he's unusually adept at capturing the art of violence. Instead, the film suffers from too much potential. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyMar 28, 2014
The action stuff in The Raid 2, while likely to alienate the squeamish and summon dark thoughts of cinematic nihilism amongst overthinking highbrows, really IS like nothing else out there. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonMar 25, 2014
The raw ingredients of Raid 2 are superb. But the overall effect is gluttonous and queasy. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMar 24, 2014
“The Raid” was a great action film in which the violence, excessive though it was, served as obstacles in the hero’s simple quest. In Raid 2 the violence is the movie, its excess used to cover for an inept story, thinly-drawn characters and dead spots. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMar 27, 2014
For better or worse, the blood and bone-crunching remains most prominent. Read full review
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