Review of District 13: Ultimatum (2009) by Dominique M — 18 Mar 2010

After a successful mission against drug lords, the efficient Captain Damien Tomaso is framed at home with three kilograms of heroine planted by the police in his kitchen and he is arrested. Meanwhile a group of teenagers film the action of dirty agents leaded by Roland from the security agency executing policemen in their car and then leaving the car with the corpses in the 13th District to blame the gangs and begin a civil war. Behind these events, the corrupt chief of the security agency Walter Gassman had received a huge amount as kickback from the constructor Harriburton that has interest to construct buildings in the poor area and uses the situation to force the President of France to authorize to nuke five towers in the district. The teenager with the film is hunted by the police but he delivers the memory card to Leito meanwhile Damien calls him from the precinct asking for help. The friends team-up with five dangerous bosses to gather evidences to prove to the president that Gassman has provoked the conflict in their district.

District B13 is probably one of my favorite action movies of the last decade, so I had high hopes when I was about to watch the sequel. But, just like most sequels, District 13: Ultimatum does not live up to its predecessor, but still doesn't totally suck.

There are two things that stood out in District B13 that are lacking in this movie. The parkour chase sequences, and the clever banter between the main characters Damien and Leito. In the sequel, the two characters hardly have any character development and don't meet up again until about halfway through the movie, not giving them as much time to play off of each other as they did in the original.

The chase sequences between Leito and whoever was chasing him at the time were also less creative then the first one. In the first, Leito is evading, jumping off high platforms, and occasionally taking the offense while still looking cool. Here, he's pretty much just running. Damien's fight sequences, however, did not disappoint. There's a sequence early on in the film where he's fighting a hoard of police officers while trying to preserve an authentic Van Gogh painting. The sequence gets stupid, but at least it's well-shot, well-choreographed, and above all entertaining.

Even though I still kinda liked it, the movie got boring at times. The first movie had enough action to keep me interested, but the sequel focuses more on story than action. And while that might be a positive note for some people, I personally wanted more action, more creativity, something to keep me interested.

(SPOILER-ish thing coming up).

The ending was also pretty disappointing. It felt very anticlimactic due to the fact that they rolled the knocked out the villain, rolled him up in a carpet, and called it a day. It just felt like a weak ending for an action movie. I mean, didn't they roll Grampa into a carpet in The Simpsons Movie?

In a nutshell, District 13: Ultimatum does not live up to its predecessor, but the moments that do stand out (Damien's fight scenes and the banter between the two leads) was enough to get me through it.

Final Rating: C+.