Oh goddamn do we like that!

nice camerawork and action sequences. one thing tho: i just wish the fighting had more of a distinctive style.

but yeah, this looks kickass.

Kick his ass sebastian!!!

There's no way you've seen 'em done this way. As near as I can tell this is the first film to ever feature silat as a fight discipline in any sort of serious fashion. What you're getting in the trailer is quick snips of a lot of different set pieces bu when you see the whole thing each of the major fights was designed to showcase some different aspect of the discipline. I've seen a bunch more of this and it looks really cool on screen, somewhere in a middle ground between kung fu and muay thai. It's like certain streams of muay thai in that defensive moves are also designed to be strikes, so it's pretty punishing.

Lots of people have commented on how much he looks like pre-plastic surgery Jaa and I think it's a pretty fair comparison. I think Iko's a better actor, though.

Ehhh. Looks like another Jackie Chan/Tony Jaa clone. I'm still impressed with the stuntmen who take the nasty falls on this though. But new breed of action? Not really. Nothing I haven't seen that's new and innovative. The use of props and running away as thugs run after you, Jackie Chan influences there. The fighting, although they promote it as 'Silat' still feels more like a fusion of Muay Thai and some Kung Fu. Not ripping on it for trying though. I'm still going to check it out!

The punches and kicks here seem to lack impact, which is something Tony Jaa does very well in comparison. The choreography looks promising, but a little familiar, like others pointed out.

This just jumped to my must see list of martial arts films this year, not that there are too many. I tag this film "Ong Bak 1 Part 2", it introduces a new screen martial artist to the screen bringing with him an unknown art-I hope it delivers on screen with the action and if everything that is said about Uwais is true I hope the film and he get a little success. Unlike Ong Bak, this is one of those little films marketed big-or declaring its "next" status.

Hmm ... yup ... just watched it again with that in mind and there's only one forward strike in that entire trailer that may be a closed fist (plus a couple backhands where he may close up) and that one moves through the frame too fast too tell. For absolutely everything else the hands are open ...

This is like wading into one of those 360/PS3 flamewars, lots of people talking, but most of them don't know shit about the subject.
I don't know shit about it either, but even I can tell the fighting style is different; there's a lot of dodging the blow, and then using the momentum of the opponent's power to counterattack.
Lots of good stuff and variety to the choreography (something missing in stuff like Dynamite Warrior) and it feels like it's been a while since I saw a lot of brawls in which the hero was protecting a non-combatant in mid-fight.
Only negative point I'd really raise is that there are a few points in this where it looks like there's an extra beat between moves, where they don't quite manage to keep the flow going as smoothly as I'd like. Maybe those moments play differently in context, or they've found a way to edit to cover them, but it could be a little inexperience showing.

I'm all for having new blood in martial arts movies these days, and i like that we are seeing a style that hasn't got the spotlight in these kind of films. Buuuuuut, i have to say that the coreographys didn't impress me, the movements look tricky and complex, but the overall pacing feels to mechanic and robotic. You can almost see how the stuntmen pause to fake certain strikes or dodge a certain move. It looks similar to Chocolate in that sense, where most of the moves looked either slow or lacking power.

I'm willing to give it a chance, but let's face the fact that stuff like SPL and Flashpoint have raised the bar quite high in terms of fight scenes. Heck, go and watch almost any Jackie or Sammo flick from the 80s, you watch something like Eastern Condors last fight, or the mall fight in Police Story and you just can't help to say "ouch!". Here? I didn't got that feeling.

Although I've done Pencak Silat Walisongo for a few years, I wouldn't call myself an expert either. The style was very ground based fighting, i.e. lots of locking or bringing opponent down painfully to the floor with knees, shins, elbows. That's why I got excited by Tom Yum Gum, because I recognise a lot of those moves in the big brawl at the end. Even even Donnie Yen's Flashpoint had some Silat like techniques (Donnie lying on his back, curled up like a turtle, keeping opponent at bay with his leg and protecting his face with his arms).

So, I'm not surprised by the comments about people having seen "all this" before. All that's really left, and I'm generalising, is dagger fighting, "Kembangan" (a "dance fight" in a trance like state) and the whole point of finishing opponents off quick. Feels brutal when you're on the receiving end, but not much scope for flashy, extended fightscenes with my limited imagination.

Still the opening shots especially are enough to get me excited about this, but then again, I'm biased. Good to see some discussion on this post and thanks for continuously pimping of this, Todd.

This movie is something we need in the states at a daily basis... Is it too much to ask if they can make a theater strictly for Chopsocky movies only, like a chopsocky theater...

Holy flying sheep shit that was awesome!!!

"Poor guy works hard all his life, gets his big break, and his power gets compared to a 90lb girl in the first 3 minutes."

That's not the guy's fault, but of the director and editor for making the fights look so bland. Tony Jaa might had a lot of extras just standing to get punched, but at least in those movies the action looks convincing enough.

It's obvious that we can't judge the entire product just by seeing a trailer, but again, what i saw failed to impress me.

I'm afraid I must concur that there is very little actual Silat on display in that trailer. But then, as in all martial arts films, flashiness must by needs trump realism.

Having grown up in Malaysia, I have seen my share of Silat, though I have never practiced it. Most Silat styles have the distinction of being heavy on the grappling- and joint locks-side, with few high kicks. It is, however, most certainly NOT a primary grappling art like Sambo. I guess it can be most accurately described as the Traditional Jujitsu of the Malay Straits.

Watch the episode of Fight Quest featuring Silat to get an idea of what real Silat is like.

That said, I AM excited for this movie. It's fiction, after all.

I saw a bit of Wu Jing's legendary assasin the other day. I don't know why some call it a return to 80s HK action flicks, because what i saw was a shitload of wire-fu, choppy angles and so on.

Naysay all you want, it looks amazing. I peed my pants. I'm no martial arts expert, but I have been training for the last ten years or so, and stylistically it looks fairly different from Tony Jaa and Jackie Chan, and really anyone. Plus, it looks like it's actually a well made film, which is more than I can say for most of Tony Jaa's films.

Plenty comments here it seems. This wasn't a bad trailer but there were two things I didn't like:

i) Hard not to compare with Ong Bak given the way the trailer is shot and how the fighting appears (although technically different)

ii) As another commented, most of the stunt men really walk into the body shots

It does look interesting and that is mainly due to silat being the chosen martial art on display. But I won't be rushing out to watch it. I never really got the superior acting skills from that trailer, which Todd mentioned. I am probably still feeling bitter over the disappointment that was Ong Bak 2....

The low budget aspect makes the fighting more authentic here. Not sure what the style of 'silat' is but it's very plastic-athletic.

Frankly, Todd, I'd really like to have seen some explicit examples of those open-handed, grappling moves I hear you and others mentioning about Silat. I guess they're keen to market the man as Jaa, knees or no.

Still, some of those elbow moves connect like a bastard.

Hi, just thought I'd jump in since I also had the honor of getting to visit the set of Merantau where I got to meet Iko and Gareth, who kindly showed me a bunch of footage from the movie (I'm a journalist working in Jakarta)

I totally get the Tony Jaa thing, and so does Gareth who joked about it when I mentioned it to him. As a huge martial arts film fan he's aware of the inevitable comparisons, but trust me when I say he wanted to make something unique and different.

People mention that in the trailer Iko seems to lack the raw power of Jaa, but that's part of his appeal in my opinion. Iko is never presented as an unstoppable superman like Jaa, but just what he is, a highly skilled but still very vulnerable human being. There's one shot before that big fight scene on the docks that beautifully illustrates this. Iko hesitates because he knows he's about to take on dozens of guys and he'll probably get killed, but he goes ahead anyways.

And the thing is, Iko can really sell the acting. Tony Jaa is an amazing martial artist and stuntman, no doubt, but nobody is going to argue he's a great thespian. But Gareth (who's first film was a critically acclaimed suspense thriller) really found out how to get Iko to emote subtly and realistically.

The acting and writing from the parts I've seen were far and away better than the barely serviceable plots of Jaa's films and most martial arts movies. The fact that the most celebrated Indonesian actress working today, Christine Hakim, agreed to play Iko's mother shows how committed Gareth was to story as well as action.Some might question whether story is even really a consideration with martial arts movies, but I for one hate movies where I'm just waiting for the next fight scene to begin, and this movie is more than just a bunch of fight scenes stitched together, there's a real story too.

And the action IS ridiculously cool. I'm not going to rank it against other martial arts movies, but let's just say that the trailer really only hints at some of the crazy skills and combat that is displayed in the movie. I will say that the elevator fight scene is the coolest close quarters fight scene I've ever seen. And that fight at the docks is as brutal as they come in.

Anyways, just throwing in my two cents. I seriously can't wait to see it when it comes out here, and I hope everybody gets to see it too. Cheers.

Is not that the guy must look like superman or anything like that, but when the fights in the movie just look bland and poorly directed then you have a problem.