Devon Graham’s review published on Letterboxd:
The only reason why I found out about this film was because everyone was going fucking crazy over The Raid 2. So I decided to watch this now, and see The Raid 2 tonight. I have to admit, Gareth Evans' The Raid: Redemption was an amazing watch.
I'm a huge sucker for any type of 'good' choreographed fighting styles so watching this was initially really awesome. One thing that kind of bothered me was when the fight scenes went on for a while (more so the hand to hand), it started to get extremely repetitive. Guns ruin a good fight, so when the quote "I've never really like using these. Takes away the rush. Squeezing a trigger...it's like ordering takeout" was said, I was beyond happy.
Taking away every combat scene, the story was there but it wasn't hidden very well. I thought it was pretty predictable and the character subplots didn't evoke enough emotion for me to really care. None the less, this is an exciting, exhilarating, and suspenseful movie that was full of adrenaline, and I can't wait to see The Raid 2.