beallen-49754 Overall, Merantau was a good movie, I rated it a total of 4 out of 5 stars. The movie consisted of an OK plot with amazing martial arts skills. The martial arts was an amazing spectacle which made up for the lack of plot. Even though it seems like a standard, boy tries to save girl plot, it is quite different because since it is a foreign film it allows the viewer to see a different perspective and gain a global perspective. The only problem I had with the movie was the fight scenes were unrealistic allowing the hero to take on 30 plus men and defeat all of them. However, at the end the main character is finally defeated and killed. This is refreshing because in the typical united states movie, the main hero will defeat the bad guy and survive. If you are looking to learn more about Filipino culture and just enjoy a good film I would recommend this movie.

olrovin Merantau was unlike anything that I have ever seen before. The pencak silat martial arts were really cool to watch. Prior to viewing this film, I had never heard of this type of martial arts. I really liked the main character, Yuda. He seemed like a really good person who just wanted to help Astri and her little brother Adit. While he didn't have much to give himself, he used his skills in pencak silat to protect them from harm. The whole movie was very intense with some fairly graphic fighting scenes. I have gotten more used to these type of disturbing scenes through all the foreign films that I have been watching recently; however, it is definitely still hard to witness. The ending of this movie was bittersweet which is a bit different from most American films since they tend to end rather happily the majority of the time. Overall, I would give this film four out of five stars.

Harvest-R I went on watching this movie without reading anything about it before. So I didn't know what to expect.The movie has a promising beginning, where we see Yuda (Iko Uwais) practicing Silat in a beautiful natural setting, introduced by the soft voice of his mother. Later on we meet Yudas family and learn about the deep meaning and importance of the "Merantau". We learn that the "Merantau" is an important part of the life of every boy, a transition from childhood to adult. We see Yuda visiting his Silat guru for a last humble "training fight" and to get blessings before he is leaving home to begin his "Merantau".This left me with an impression of an upcoming deep and philosophical movie, where you take part in the "inner journey" and the development of Yudas character.Unfortunately the whole movie develops in a completely different direction. When leaving home, Yuda takes the next bus on a long trip to a big city. Finding out that the address he was given is now a construction site he decides spending his nights in concrete tubes laying on the yard.Instead of a thoughtful and/or philosophical movie, from now on we see Yuda chasing down bad guys in a default "yet another-martial arts-action flick"-manner, with mediocre fights choreography and an obvious predictable plot.**** Serious spoilers ****Saving a GoGo-girl and her young brother from a panderer gets him in trouble with a bunch of white-slavers. Eventually he destroys the whole organization on his own ... Only to get himself killed in the end, by the last "super bad guy" he left unattended alive and crawling on the ground, to focus his attention on freeing Astri from the shipping container.The whole death scene of Yuda afterwards was ridiculous. Besides having taken some serious blows from the fights, he should have survived the stab in his belly. It looked like the pipe wasn't penetrating deeper than 5cm (~2in) and obviously didn't hurt any important organs, since he was able to cry for another 5 minutes on the ground before suddenly fainting.**** ****4/10

Sean Newgent A young man flies from the nest in order to become an adult. It's a pretty meager story for a martial arts film, one that comes up a lot (Ong Bak is a good example). He goes to the big city, gets into trouble, and winds up fighting for his life against a bunch of crooks. There's nothing here you haven't seen before, nor any reason to be watching this for plot. What you're here for, of course, is the action.As a traditional martial arts film, it spends a lot of time getting to the action and then the movie is nothing but. If you can get past the initial thirty minute slump, the film has some pretty decent action, though nothing I can seriously recommend watching the whole film for. In my experience, a lot of martial arts films can easily be cast aside thanks to the advent of Youtube. Now all you have to do is look the movie up, watch the fight scene that is the only fantastic part, and move on with your life. And sadly, I feel Merantau is one of those movies. Despite the brilliant directing on the part of Evans (he knows how to film an action scene without all the shakiness, as well as play the camera to the movement taking place) it's a very average, run-of-the-mill piece. The brutal action is kind of there, though you'll find that only one or two knock-outs are worthy of getting a rewind or a jaw-drop.So go to Youtube, watch the final fight, and otherwise there is no real reason to buy this. It's a very soft rent if you're itching for action, but could easily be a pass for most others. I'll give it a rent though, especially if you're a fan of The Raid.