When he moved to Indonesia to create a documentary, Welsh filmmaker Gareth Evans found himself taken with pencak silat, that country’s form of martial arts. This led him to shoot and set a subsequent flick in that land, 2011’s The Raid: Redemption.

In the murkiest parts of Jakarta, one particular apartment complex acts as a “safe house” for the society’s most dangerous criminals. Though viewed as “untouchable” by authorities, a SWAT team attempts to infiltrate it to capture Tama Riyadi (Ray Sahetapy), the drug lord who controls the property.

This doesn’t go as planned, and tables become turned. Stuck on the sixth floor of the building, the members of the squad must fight for their lives to escape.

Maybe someone figured out the first movie to use this one’s conceit. Stories of characters pinned down against seemingly insurmountable odds who need to survive go back decades and I won’t claim to know the origins of this plot.

But the well-worn nature of Redemption’s basic narrative doesn’t doom it to failure, of course. The question becomes how well Evans executes the tale.

In my opinion? Not especially well, as Evans undercuts the film’s potential with some problematic cinematic choices.

In particular, Evans relies far too heavily on my old foe: shakycam. An awful lot of the action goes with frenetic handheld camerawork.

I guess Evans felt this style would make the fights seem more propulsive, and at times, this feels true. However, a little shakycam goes a long way, and the persistent use of that style turns into a genuine distraction.

Indeed, the handheld work actively counteracts the positives of the action scenes. Rather than give them added life, these sequences too often feel chaotic in a bad way, as they lack the coherence they need to prosper.

Given that Redemption lives and dies with its fights, this ends up as a definite problem. While I won’t call this movie all action and no plot, it borders on that status.

Sure, we find some basic story points. In particular, we follow inexperienced cop Rama (Iko Uwais) as the main character with whom the film wants us to bond.

Don’t expect any actual depth or dimensionality to our lead, however. Redemption gives Rama some basics but nothing much, and it even sticks him with the cliché “pregnant wife at home” concept that shows up far too often in action flicks.

Other trite concepts come along for the ride. Evans barely even attempts any form of creativity with character and story elements.

Which gets us back to the movie’s bread and butter: its fight scenes. Again, these occasionally hit the mark, but too often the frenetic camerawork robs them of real impact.

The absence of a strong plot also hurts the film. “Action for Action’s Sake” movies seem more popular than ever, led by the John Wick series.

Those movies include story beats but really exist as nothing more than excuses for incessant fight scenes.

Clearly there’s an audience for films of that sort, but I admit I find them unsatisfying. Maybe it’s the videogame culture that makes viewers want action, action and more action with little care for story or characters.

Whatever the case, Redemption largely wastes its potential. There’s an exciting tale somewhere in here, but the annoying camerawork and flimsy script make the movie underwhelming.

Note that the film originally ran just as The Raid and got a title change to The Raid: Redemption for US release. Since that’s the title on this package, that’s the one I used.

The Raid: Redemption appears in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a surprisingly flat presentation.

In particular, interiors tended to look drab and murky. Granted, some of this seemed to come by design, but I nonetheless felt too much of the movie seemed dull and lifeless.

As such, blacks usually felt a little gray and without depth. Low-light shots came across as acceptable but similarly bland.

Overall delineation seemed fairly good, though this general sense of dullness impacted those elements as well. We got adequate accuracy that occasionally became more precise, but not consistently.

Colors remained unmemorable as well, with a palette that favored grays and browns. Ultimately, the image remained watchable but oddly muddy.

At least the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack packed more of a punch – and maybe a little too much punch at times. The soundfield could seem more hyperactive than necessary.

Still, at least the mix used all the channels in a vivid manner and made sure to engulf the viewer in the action. Effects could feel a bit more “speaker-specific” than I’d prefer but the soundscape nonetheless managed to add involvement to the proceedings.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that seemed concise and distinctive. Music showed nice range and heft.

Effects came to the forefront and demonstrated appealing accuracy and power, with good low-end as necessary. A lack of subtlety kept this one from “A”-level consideration, but the soundtrack still satisfied.

Note that Redemption comes with two options in terms of musical score. We get the original Indonesian-release track from composers Aria Prayogi and Fajar Yuskemal as well as an alternate US-release score from composers Mike Shinoda and Joseph Trapanese.

Both provide similar soundfields, so the music becomes the only difference. I didn’t view one as preferable to the other, but I appreciate the inclusion of both.

The Blu-ray comes with a bunch of extras, and these launch with an audio commentary from writer/director Gareth Evans. He delivers a running, screen-specific discussion of how he ended up in Indonesia and the movie’s development, story/characters, cast and performances, sets and locations, effects, influences, action and stunts, sound design and the two different musical scores, editing, photography and connected domains.

In other words, Evans touches on everything you’d expect from a commentary. He packs in tons of good information and makes this a terrific track.

Six Behind the Scenes Video Blogs fill a total of 39 minutes, 32 seconds. Across these, we hear from Evans, producer Ario Sagantoro, actors/martial arts choreographers Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhiyan, art director Moti D. Setyanto, make up special effects designer Jerry Octavianus, executive producer Nate Bolotin, composers/sound designers Aria Prayogi and Fajar Yuskemal, and actors Joe Taslim, Pierre Gruno, Donny Alamsyah, and Ray Sahetapi.

The segments cover the actors’ boot camp, the movie’s martial arts, stunts and action, sets and locations, cinematography and lighting, makeup and effects, cast and performances, editing, music and sound design. These turn into good glimpses of the production.

We get a panel discussion via An Evening with Writer/Director Gareth Evans and Composers Mike Shinoda and Joe Trapanese. It spans 40 minutes, 40 seconds and presents a live chat that features those three plus moderator Hadrian Belove.

They talk about action, stunts and martial arts, the US version’s score, sets and locations, cast and performances, and other production details. Evans dominates and we get a lot of info from other pieces repeated, but this still turns into a decent chat.

In a similar vein, Behind the Music runs 11 minutes, five seconds. It includes remarks from Shinoda, Trapanese, and music supervisor Kier Lehman.

As expected, we get more info about the US version’s score. Since Shinoda and Trapanese didn’t get much space to chat in the panel, we find a better exploration of their work here.

Anatomy of a Scene goes for two minutes, 15 seconds and features Evans as he breaks down the “hole drop” segment. Though brief, Evans uses the time well to offer insights.

Next comes In Conversation with Gareth Evans and Mike Shinoda, a four-piece domain that spans a total of 11 minutes, 30 seconds. They cover a mix of production elements in this enjoyable but somewhat repetitive set of chats.

Inside the Score lasts one minute, 23 seconds and brings a simple promo reel. Yawn.

With Claycat’s The Raid, we find an unusual two-minute, 56-second short that uses stop-motion animation to recreate part of the film. It’s moderately amusing.

We also get an ad for The Raid TV, a 1994 show that didn’t actually exist. Instead, the 44-second clip shows a promo that pretends the movie originally existed as an anime series. Like “Claycat”, it offers some entertainment.

The disc opens with ads for Looper, Starship Troopers: Invasion, Resident Evil: Damnation, The Words and Safety Not Guaranteed. We also get the trailer for Redemption.

Viewers who want non-stop action but don’t care about niceties like plot or characters will enjoy The Raid: Redemption. The flick didn’t work for me, however, and the overuse of annoying handheld photography made matters worse. The Blu-ray comes with involving audio and a nice array of bonus materials but picture quality seems bland. Redemption occasionally connects but it too often feels too superficial and frenetic.