The Raid 2 , on paper, should not exist - indeed, the background to the original sounds like the start of a really weird joke.

What do you get when you mix a Welꦓsh director with only two movies to his name, a spattering of non-English speaking actors, and a hardcore martial-arts tale🐬 set and filmed in Indonesia?

As all film fans luckily enough to have seen The Raid now know, the answer was 's𓂃omething (perhaps unexpectedly) a🐻mazing'.

Which is why anticipation for Gareth Evan's The Raid 2: Berandal amongst genre fans has reached fever pitch. Thankfully, we're happy to report, it'll not only please the faithful, but has the ꦅpotential to astound a whole new audie🌼nce, too.

While the first blew fans away with its kinetic action scenes, confined setting, and relatively simple plot, The Raid 2: Berandal manages to expand upon everything fans loved from the first, and then blow the barn doors off the 💟genre to create something adrenalising in not only its actioᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚn scenes, but its scope.

The plot magnifies The Raid 's universe enormously - while the movie starts mere minutes after the first one ends, the wor🐎ld we knew before (a corrupt tower block full of psychotic killers) is just the tip of the insanity iceberg. Before long, Rama (Iko Uwais) is forced to go undercover within a ruthless Jakarta crime syndicate to save his family, and things onl💫y get crazier, more hardcore and relentlessly breathtaking from there.

Highlights include an easy contender for best car chase of the year (and yes, we know it's only January), a freewheeling 30-40 person mud-bath fight-off, a spectacularly choreographed three way fight bet🤪ween Rama, and the appropriately named Hammer Girl and Baseball Bat Man, and a nightclub takedown that's a masterclass in how to pace an action scene.

And while it weighs in at a mind-bogglingly-long-for-an-action-movie run time of around two and a half hours, each and every fight🅠 scene feels unique. Throw in a more gripping narrative that takes in the betrayal, murder and corruption of two warring crime syndicate dynasties, and there's more than enough to keep you entertained.

I🐷t's unlikely to convert those of a non-action-movie disposition, but for those who enjoy thrills and action-packed spills, you're guaranteed to leave on a giddy high.

Ultimately, The Raid 2: Berandal is a movie that - pleasingly - baffles in its conception and execution; that Evans can make an action movie🐼 so dense, thrilling, original and accomplished after only three feature length movies of his own is - like the movie itself - more than a little crazy and exciting.

Bring on The Raid 3 .