Action Fest 2010: DISTRICT 13 ULTIMATUM Review
[This review originally ran with the film's screening at Fantastic Fest but with District 13 Ultimatum now screening at Action Fest we hereby present it to you again.]
District 13 is once again in trouble. The gangs are restless, promised changes have not come to pass, poverty and crime are as rampant as ever. And, just in case things weren't difficult and complex enough in the anarchic district, it appears as though it has a new enemy, a powerful and well financed enemy determined to bring the wrath of the establishment down upon the people and willing to kill to do so. In the face of lawlessness and rising violence there can be only one response: by-the-book supercop Damien and free roaming -- free running, I should say -- vigilante Leto must once again join forces to bring peace to District 13.
District 13 is once again in trouble. The gangs are restless, promised changes have not come to pass, poverty and crime are as rampant as ever. And, just in case things weren't difficult and complex enough in the anarchic district, it appears as though it has a new enemy, a powerful and well financed enemy determined to bring the wrath of the establishment down upon the people and willing to kill to do so. In the face of lawlessness and rising violence there can be only one response: by-the-book supercop Damien and free roaming -- free running, I should say -- vigilante Leto must once again join forces to bring peace to District 13.
When Pierre Morel's District B13 burst on to the scene in 2004,
prescient timing and clever marketing allowed the film to tap into the
bubbling awareness of a new extreme sport, parkour. By casting
parkour's co-creator David Belle as Leto and then building the film
around his unique skills the film delivered something people had never
before seen on screen, a dazzling combination of speed, strength, grace
and fearlessness. Largely on Belle's back the film became a huge
international hit and so producer Luc Besson did what smart producers
always do in cases like these: he took his original formula, shifted
the focus slightly and made a sequel.
This is not, however, to say that District 13: Ultimatum does not have some significant problems. There is definitely an element of sequel sag here. The core villains of the piece lack the raw charisma of the original - when will people realize that land scams don't make for compelling plot lines? - and Belle seems strangely disinterested and uninvolved in the whole piece. It could be simply that some of the luster has come off of the parkour movement but it seems more as if the producers simply pulled out a pre-existing martial arts script tailored for Raffaelli and then tried to shove Belle in rather than building a story from the ground up designed to showcase his unique abilities as they did the first time out.
The wasting of Belle - a true revelation in the first picture - and failure to provide the heroes with a compelling villain to battle is a disappointment, true, but Raffaelli is certainly not. The man is blessed with a natural charisma that makes him a joy to watch and this is his coming out party, the film representing by far his best moment on screen. His fights are furious, intense and cleverly choreographed to showcase his power, his technique, and a surprising sense of humor. And Raffaelli brings along some fantastic support pieces as well, one fight sequence in particular featuring a young woman from the gangs who fights by whipping her long, braided hair - with blades attached to the end - at her enemies. In the end it makes for a film that fails to truly build on the successes of the original but is pretty damn entertaining in its own right.
District 13: Ultimatum
Director(s)
- Patrick Alessandrin
Writer(s)
- Luc Besson (scenario)
Cast
- Cyril Raffaelli
- David Belle
- Philippe Torreton
- Daniel Duval
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