It's funny how things can quickly change on the Internet, first of all by now if you type The Raid on google, the topmost is a link to the IMDB database of an Indonesian movie called The Raid (Redemption), an international award-winning movie from director Gareth Evans, and also my topmost must see movie when it hits the theater
But now let's get back in time, seven months ago when you type the same words the topmost could be an MMORPG documentary called The Raid, which atrracts me because at that time I was on the beginning of my journey to the larger world of MMO beyond my local servers, so I watched it and yeah it's a good documentary, I wrote a review about it ....and because of the hype of Redemption I might as well post it side to side
The Raid
But now let's get back in time, seven months ago when you type the same words the topmost could be an MMORPG documentary called The Raid, which atrracts me because at that time I was on the beginning of my journey to the larger world of MMO beyond my local servers, so I watched it and yeah it's a good documentary, I wrote a review about it ....and because of the hype of Redemption I might as well post it side to side
The Raid
(This is a review I wrote about nine months ago, after watching The Raid which was premiered on gamebreaker.tv on August 6th 2011)
Several months ago I made a 'revolutionary' approach on my own Lineage 2 experience, installed RaidCall, fixed my sucky sound card driver so I can talk to my clan members, and head dive into 'clan first' raidcalled fortress battle (one of the fastest FB ever), that once set my brain on fire and drunk with experience, well I always thought it'll progress from there, I dreamed of my first true 'Raidcalled' Raid
.......unfortunately it never happened............ but hey, here's a story about some guys on different game which it happens :))
The Raid basically is a short World of Warcraft documentary about how MMORPG raiders 'life' in game, when it was announced a year ago I was immediately pulled out topics about MMORPG community, to be honest the plan of The Raid itself was one of the things that gotten me into World of Warcraft (beside warlocks and yeah I'm a fanboy) :D
The Raid followed raid progress of raid guild 'Months Behind' on World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion as they progressed on their own Ice Crown Citadel Raid up to the Lich King, the movies tarted up by defining the 'MMORPG' genre, and some of its jargons like: 'dungeons', 'avatar' and 'Raid', interspeded by cutscenes of the raid progress itself, and the men (and women) behind the avatars of Months Behind and their own reason of playing and ultimately: raiding
One of the strong points of The Raid that it covered almost the vital aspect of MMORPG but the downside is the movie wasn't build up quickly, if you're not a gamer (and also not digging the first rant about 'Achievements and guilds') the first minute you treated into a cutscene of Lord Marrowgar (first boss of Icecrown Citadel) yelling: BOOOOOONNEE STTTOOORRRMMM!!! and followed by the whole guild members talking about their reason to raid you'll quickly feel out of space and say like 'huh'? but after 15 minutes the raid progressed and the conversation is also leveled as there are more and more interaction between guild members and then you'll start thinking along the lines: "Yeah these guys are weirdos, but they're kinda cool" of course when you're not into computer games and MMORPG specifically you'll push the stop button.
.......unfortunately it never happened............ but hey, here's a story about some guys on different game which it happens :))
The Raid basically is a short World of Warcraft documentary about how MMORPG raiders 'life' in game, when it was announced a year ago I was immediately pulled out topics about MMORPG community, to be honest the plan of The Raid itself was one of the things that gotten me into World of Warcraft (beside warlocks and yeah I'm a fanboy) :D
The Raid followed raid progress of raid guild 'Months Behind' on World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion as they progressed on their own Ice Crown Citadel Raid up to the Lich King, the movies tarted up by defining the 'MMORPG' genre, and some of its jargons like: 'dungeons', 'avatar' and 'Raid', interspeded by cutscenes of the raid progress itself, and the men (and women) behind the avatars of Months Behind and their own reason of playing and ultimately: raiding
One of the strong points of The Raid that it covered almost the vital aspect of MMORPG but the downside is the movie wasn't build up quickly, if you're not a gamer (and also not digging the first rant about 'Achievements and guilds') the first minute you treated into a cutscene of Lord Marrowgar (first boss of Icecrown Citadel) yelling: BOOOOOONNEE STTTOOORRRMMM!!! and followed by the whole guild members talking about their reason to raid you'll quickly feel out of space and say like 'huh'? but after 15 minutes the raid progressed and the conversation is also leveled as there are more and more interaction between guild members and then you'll start thinking along the lines: "Yeah these guys are weirdos, but they're kinda cool" of course when you're not into computer games and MMORPG specifically you'll push the stop button.
...and then Garrosh and Darnell will tag team you
The stigmas of MMORPG players are always the hottest topics on every MMO documentary, The Raid wasn't my first MMORPG documentary, before it came out I watched at least two independent documentaries (which alas I can't remember their names), and the stigmas always the same: computer gamers a.k.a nerds is the one playing games 24/7 on their home basement and live their life IN the game. There's no denying it that some of them DID it but NOT everyone, One of the finer point of The Raid that it brings these people involved into the spotlight without being judgmental about their REAL life, being a gamer is fine, socially acceptable is fine too but that's not the point here because we all knew games will always be games and beside, your parents won't understand why you collect stamps :))
Guild dramas also got their own portion here, picturized by Sindragosa and Putricide boss mechanics which can lead to brief dispute on party members, I personally like the analogy here, it kinda reminds me when I was once my first heroic Tol'vir where everyone got ZERO experience about the fight and after several wipes people start leaving, but in the end we downed the boss (I was dead and didn't get credited... sad). The conflict get a nice resolved result where everyone gained their morale back, and face the last boss: The Lich King himself
Ice to meet you
My conclusion is: The movie is short, yes, it contains issues that has been on topic for several years, yes, worst of: It will appeal gamers quickly but baffles non gamers but The Raid made a different approach: It's specialized and not generalized. It's a story about a guild, about the people in it, about their motivation, reason, connection, friendship, and group achievement, the last minutes of the movie is probably the highlight of everything The Raid is all about, the personal satisfaction, and at that moment: you're a hero
Many cynic will said: why the hell made movies about this? It's about a bunch of nerds playing videogames and recording themselves with webcams, I will just said to them in my 'personal' reference: Haters will hate :))
The Raid: Redemption preview
EDIT: I forgot to reveal one single vital thing, I only know about The Raid: Redemption when someone on gamebreaker.TV comment page asked if it's the move from the Sundance festival (or something along that line) I googled it and found out a movie from my country which apparently very good at staying under my radar
Anyway, now take a look at this trailer,
now worship it :D
Two years ago Gareth Evans made a low budget Indonesian martial arts movie called 'Merantau' a story about a justicar country bumpkin that travels to town in search of a job but ended up rescuing a girl and her brother from the clutches of a human-trafficking Triad, sporting a martial arts theme equivalent to a B-Grade Hollywood movie at that time doesn't help Merantau on my local theater (which contains more sucky movies), I even didn't paid attention to it at first, watching it once when a TV station runs it and...
It.. was... AWESOME
The story are predictable but being a martial arts movie the choreographed martial arts is over the top, the main star Iko Uwais is a pencak silat practicioner and he fluidly moving in front of camera as a natural, it somewhat reminds me of Ong Bak (another martial arts title from Thailand) but not exactly the same, Merantau runs in a medium pace but somewhat dragged at the climax, the movie itself was good but disregard some of the few common things (i.e. not one cop was seen) but it's all for the sake of good adrenaline-pumping fights and I'm down with that
Apparently Merantau is only the first story of a trilogy martial arts movie by Evans, the second is called "Serbuan Maut" a.k.a The Raid, i really have no idea why seven months later it become The Raid: Redemption, coincidence with The Raid documentary? /shrug but anyways moving on, apparently Evans learned from his previous mistakes about releasing local martial arts movie to local audience, instead he slapped this movie in front of Sundance 2011 audience and every other movie festival audience since them, the results? The movie won awards from Berlin and Toronto film festival and now released officially on US theaters (and the rest of the world) after Sony Picture Classic bought the distribution
The movie itself gained a solid rating of 8.3 on IMDB (March 2012), so yeah it automatically made it to my must see movies, hopefully, it'll be worth the hype
Two years ago Gareth Evans made a low budget Indonesian martial arts movie called 'Merantau' a story about a justicar country bumpkin that travels to town in search of a job but ended up rescuing a girl and her brother from the clutches of a human-trafficking Triad, sporting a martial arts theme equivalent to a B-Grade Hollywood movie at that time doesn't help Merantau on my local theater (which contains more sucky movies), I even didn't paid attention to it at first, watching it once when a TV station runs it and...
It.. was... AWESOME
The story are predictable but being a martial arts movie the choreographed martial arts is over the top, the main star Iko Uwais is a pencak silat practicioner and he fluidly moving in front of camera as a natural, it somewhat reminds me of Ong Bak (another martial arts title from Thailand) but not exactly the same, Merantau runs in a medium pace but somewhat dragged at the climax, the movie itself was good but disregard some of the few common things (i.e. not one cop was seen) but it's all for the sake of good adrenaline-pumping fights and I'm down with that
Apparently Merantau is only the first story of a trilogy martial arts movie by Evans, the second is called "Serbuan Maut" a.k.a The Raid, i really have no idea why seven months later it become The Raid: Redemption, coincidence with The Raid documentary? /shrug but anyways moving on, apparently Evans learned from his previous mistakes about releasing local martial arts movie to local audience, instead he slapped this movie in front of Sundance 2011 audience and every other movie festival audience since them, the results? The movie won awards from Berlin and Toronto film festival and now released officially on US theaters (and the rest of the world) after Sony Picture Classic bought the distribution
The movie itself gained a solid rating of 8.3 on IMDB (March 2012), so yeah it automatically made it to my must see movies, hopefully, it'll be worth the hype
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