SPOILER ALERT!!!!
This movie was definitely one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. I told all my friends about it. The first scene with the officer in his house doesn’t show much of a story. I enjoyed the violence of the movie. It seemed like a classic martial arts movie. It has a really great soundtrack for it as well as a decent plot. It took a really long time to introduce the character by name. The villains are very dark, evil, and cruel.
The movie is about a cop who is out to get rid of a drug gang in a condo. When the cops enter the building they have a lot of people with a lot of guns. When they arrive on the scene the lieutenant is already there by himself which is suspicious. They had the classic cliche of the rookie being the savior of the movie. Another thing that was suspicious is that the lieutenant was not wearing the same armor as everyone else. It seems everyone has a specialty like in "Call of Duty;" I really thought that was an aspect just to make the game more enjoyable. During the initial scene, the music was building up with the actions of the group. The camera angles were very good. By using different angles it heightens the sense of action. It also made the raid seem really dark. Originally it seemed that attack civils lived in a bad neighborhood, especially when they put duct tape on that guy’s mouth while he was sleeping. When the lieutenant shoots that kid I was thinking that he had an incredibly ridiculous aim. He raised his gun after the kid started running and killed him with one shot through the door. Once the alarm was tripped I would have pulled my men back and came back on another day. They already knew that other gangs have tried and failed. The criminals were incredibly smart. They had a plan to deal with invaders. The gang in this movie was very large. They seemed to have an endless supply of people to use and weapons. As the authorities were systematically wiped out I believe that this movie was going to have a sad ending. The ending was pretty good. I can not wait to watch the rest of the series. The third installment of the trilogy is coming out next year. When the police group split up it seemed like each group was going to face a sub-boss before fighting the main boss.
The camera shots were very good for this movie. Then different variances in light and angles gave the movie a better action sequence. Inside the gang compound, the lights were dimmed and had a blue-ish filter placed over the shots. This heightens the actions and the movements within the shots. By dimming the lights less detail is seen within each frame. Throughout the movie, the police lost weapons or rather they left weapons. At one point they just decided to not even go back for the weapon. The fight scenes were pretty decent, I enjoyed them a lot. However like most martial movies I feel that people shouldn’t get up or move after certain hits. The soundtrack to this movie was on fire. It accented the fight scenes and anticipated when a good or bad thing was about to happen.
The acting was very average. None of the characters really stood out except for the evil brother. The characters were also very cliché, for example, the rookie cop who turns out to be the hero, the crooked lieutenant, and a brother relationship with a cop and a bad guy. I do not remember any of the character’s name. The high points of the movie were the action and the soundtrack.
I instantly recommended it to all my friends. I told them this movie was a mixture between Ip Man and 300. It also had the musical feel of the new Batman trilogy. I was even considering sharing it with my dad.
