The Raid: Redemption has a message, an important message, for today’s youth. If you come upon a guy, standing in a pile of corpses that he has just killed with his bare hands (or with the corpses’ own weapons) do not, under any circumstances, attack him.  Even if your drug lord boss has ordered you to do so; do not attack him. And if you MUST attack him and you do so from behind? Do not run at him hollering “YAAAAAAAAAAAAA.”

I think everyone can admit these are valuable things to know. Also, in real life, do not pick a fight with Iko Uwais or anyone who looks like him.

The Raid: Redemption is an action film that is so focused on the action that it doesn’t even have opening credits. Opening credits take away time from machete fights and this film does not want any time taken from machete fights.

The plot is simple; there is a building controlled by a crime boss and a team of cops are going in to take him down. There are a few twists and turns in this but nothing that veers outside the standard martial arts film formula. But that is a good thing. When you watch a Terrence Malick film you want to be inspired to think. When you watch a romance you want to be dewy eyed. When you watch a martial arts movie you want to see butt-kicking. Machetes must swing, bullets must fly and spectacular acrobatics must ensue.

A martial arts film also a) not be too talky b) not be so stupid you are rolling your eyes between fights c) not use stand-ins in fight scene.

When martial arts movies feel the need to explain the history and details of what is going on? They inevitably fall apart. This is because the details usually range from silly to incomprehensible to dull. Sometimes they manage to be all three. Good martial arts movies paint with a broad brush and let the audience fill in the gaps. I do not need to know more about the cop’s family in The Raid. This is true in much the same way we didn't need to know the minor villain "O'Hara" from Enter the Dragon had a rough childhood.

As to stupidity, most of these movies are full of plot holes and flaws. The trick is to make it so the audience doesn’t notice them. Limiting the talking is one way to do this. Writing a script that moves briskly along is another.  Two movies with great fight sequences? The Big Brawl and Rumble in the Bronx are made close to unwatchable by everything that occurs in between the fight sequences.  Melodrama and comedy are not usually strong points of martial arts movies. The Raid briefly shows the main character with his wife at the start of the film and he has a brief exchange with an older man. We get he has a pregnant wife. We see him working out so we know he is a bad ass. We do not need his wife put in danger to be rescued when it has nothing to do with the plot (many movies cannot resist this).

Among the other positives of The Raid; Redemption is that it will inspire you to watch great martial arts films of the distant and not so distant past.  I, for instance, re-watched Ong Bak last night.  Some of the fight scenes are ruined at the end by the obvious use of a double. They likely had to reshoot parts of the scene because the actor was obviously a martial artist. In other cases the actors cannot fight. It is the rough equivalent of a surf movie where the actors cannot surf. Hire different actors. No one cares if there is a “name” Western actor in a movie.

This film’s star, Uwais, is also pretty certainly destined for stardom. He has the intensity of Tony Jaa but also carries himself in a way that indicates he can probably act too. It is hard to tell in The Raid and it doesn’t matter in martial arts movies but if he gets offered the Indonesian equivalent of Hero, he should be able to cut it (and this is meant literally).