Headshot

"As soon as we saw him it was clear that this guy had something, a real potential screen presence," The Raid director Gareth Evans told me of his first meeting with Iko Uwais. He spoke of his promise to make the young martial artist a star, and how Uwais failed to take him seriously. Six years later, and Uwais is back in an Indonesian thriller that cements his reputation as a first class martial arts star. A small role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens notwithstanding, Hollywood may be yet to come calling, but does it matter?

During those six years, Uwais has learned a lot. The delightful freshness of raw talent is gone, of course, but in its place is a solid set of acting skills which he puts to good use in the few scenes where he's not moving at speed. His character is a man with no name when he washes up on an island beach, shot in the head, amnesiac. Ailin (Chelsea Islan) is the doctor who saves his life; because she's reading Moby Dick, he calls himself Ishmael (the classic line is never actually spoken, though we get close to it at the end). Ailin seems keen to overstep the bounds of the usual doctor/patient relationship, and happy scenes on the beach as he recovers seem almost comical, but he's troubled by the past he can recall only in brief flashbacks. He is also, unbeknownst to the two of them, being pursued by gangsters; and when Ailin is kidnapped, the need to find his way back to where he came from becomes urgent.

The plot here is pretty thin and stumbles in ways that will be familiar to fans of the genre. The Raid was one of very few martial arts movies in which it made sense for enemies to come at our hero one at a time instead of just cornering him and firing several dozen guns at once. Here, we are back to the computer game format in which minions are taken out first, followed by a series of sub-bosses with their own special quirks, before a final big boss fight, even though this makes no sense at all. Said boss, who operates like an Indonesian Joseph Kony, is willing to go all out to avenge himself after what he sees as a personal betrayal, so you cn expect o holds-barred action and plenty of real cuts and bruises on display alongside those delivered by the make-up department.

The Mo brothers (Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto) are well known for their visceral action direction (Uwais is currently working with them on Triad tale The Night Comes for Us) and in this regard Headshot really delivers. It's notable for a couple of great fights featuring Julie Estelle, who made her big breakthrough in The Raid 2 and gets better with every film. There's also a great scene in which Uwais has to fend off a would-be assassin whilst shackled to a police interrogation table. Ishmael's head injury adds an extra layer of tension, making him seem vulnerable no matter his skill. The bad guys aren't always very bright (the boss has a hidden underground lair but apparently forgets to lock his front door), but they certainly put our hero through his paces.

Despite the familiarity of many elements of its plot, Headshot is gripping throughout, with plenty of pace and energy. It will fall short of some fans' hopes but it's eminently watchable and shows its young star broadening his range, boding well for the future.