Review by C.J. Bunce
The films were part Assault on Precinct 13, part Attack the Block, and all a showcase of the skill of world-famous Indonesian Pencak Silat martial artist Iko Uwais. Long before he starred in Netflix’s Wu Assassins, Uwais had his breakout role in 2011 in The Raid as Rama, a rookie special forces squad member on an impossible mission to clear out a drug lord from a high-rise apartment complex in a Jakarta slum (with this film Uwais literally went from telephone system installer to international action star). So successful on the film festival circuit was director Gareth Evans’ The Raid (renamed The Raid: Redemption in the U.S.) that Uwais and Evans returned to take Rama undercover in a sequel, The Raid 2, in 2014. Fans of Uwais and the films can now follow Rama take his character back undercover in Titan Comics’ graphic novel, The Raid: Locked Up, a wall-to-wall martial arts action feast for the eyes.
