So you remember back when The Raid came out and all of us film geeks freaked out about it and made it our personal mission to show as many people as we could fit on a couch this amazing new brutal martial arts film we just found. Get ready for that trend to start up again because The Night Comes for Us gave me the exact same feeling when watching it in the theater.
Not only that, but it feels like half the cast from the Raid films were snatched up by director Timo Tjahjanto, the man behind Headshot and Killers to make this. Joe Taslim really steps up and gives it his all as our anti hero of a main character as well as a really interesting turn from Iko Uwais playing against type as our morally conflicted villain.
Along with a great cast, Tjahjanto has a great eye for cinematography. This film is “gorgeous”! You will be so distracted by the scrumptious visuals that you will forget how brutally violent the film is until you have the realization “Woah! When did that bottle end up in that guy’s face?” And make no mistake, this film is punishing in terms of it’s actions. Remember that cool door kill from the first Raid film?
Imagine one of those level of kills every 5 to 10 minutes. Our main character uses his environment to kill his adversaries in so many creative ways, you would think Jason Vorhees learned martial arts. The final fight in particular feels like the truly vicious final showdown between Wolverine and Sabertooth that we were denied in the X-Men films.
The only negative here is that the film could probably cut some fat from it’s story so it can run at a leaner and meaner 90 minutes. Julie Estelle comes out of know where at one point from what feels like a completely different movie. Her backstory and motivations are left so unexplained that, if I didn’t know better, I would think that they are setting her up for her how spin off movie MCU style. This does not stop The Night Comes for Us from being one of the most pulse pounding action films I have seen in a long time and I highly recommend you see it once it hits Netflix this month.
