Banlieue 13: Ultimatum

I was a bit disappointed with B13 Ultimatum, and I'm judging it against the first installment of B 13. I expected it to be on par if not better than the original but I found it slower, flatter and far less dynamic. Somewhat similar to Matrix and Matrix Reloaded, the 1st being fresh and dynamic and the 2nd being more polished and elaborate, though I thought the latter was still very good. B13 Ultimatum is plagued by some bad scripting and cartoonish and ridiculous characters - like the face-tattooed Tao - and lost credibility as the film progresses, becoming a mediocre Hollywood action flick. One detail that I found amusing and ridiculous was the amount of gun-less cops that were mowed over by the two protagonists, yet when they did use guns, the shower of bullets seemed useless against the seemingly bullet-proof little Citroen or Renault get-away car.. Hollywood, eat your heart out.

Well, let me get it out of the way -- "Ultimatum" is not as fun or exciting as the first film. Fans looking for more of the amazing David Belle and the stunts of parkour will find these elements lacking in the sequel. B-13 had a simple plot and explosive action sequences that still hold up well today. New director this time around and the crisp compositions and editing of the original are replaced with more uses of the hand-held cam, to less successful results. If you liked the opening camera-work in B13 -- you get a lot more of it here as the camera swooshes around the blocks of District 13 introducing the major players in the film. Fortunatly, the chemistry of Belle and Raffaelli is still strong, but they just don't have enough to do together in this plot. Speaking of plot, I would dare say that this sequel has too much plot and side characters. Belle seems like a supporting player in his own film. Now to be fair, there are a couple of good sequences that spark the original vibe of B-13, but sadly, they are few and far between. I had high hopes going into this one, but was let down overall. Let's hope that for the third film (come on, there has to be one) that both Belle and Raffaelli are given the room to really top and go beyond what we've seen them do before.

Jackie Chan has grown old, as has the Kung Fu craze, it is time for the French to show their talents in Parkeur and martial arts. The story itself doesn't make much sense, but the moves are simply great.

I have seen Banlieue 13 a long time ago and liked it for the action movie that it was, and this sequel was at least as packed with acrobatics, however I think it missed some of the feel of the first.

Bottom line: Hard to say anything more about the movie. Just watch it if you like action.

If this film doesn't make you want to go to the gym for at least 5 minutes, then I don't know what will :)

Happened to catch this sequel on Sky Movies (which was transmitted sub-titled, rather than dubbed, so "thank you" Sky, for that) and thought it was great. I enjoyed it so much that I've just bought the first District 13 film on DVD from Amazon.

Cyril Raffaelli makes a good hero in the Jason Stathan mold and I thought the fight choreography was exceptional - as good as anything that comes out of Hong Kong, more realistic than theatrical, and very effective for that.

I was very impressed with Elodie Yung, too. Who wouldn't be?

Can't wait to see the first film, now ...

It was not up to the standard to the first film. I still liked some fight scenes. I saw the deleted and extended scenes on the DVD, and it was basically 9 min of fight footage that was not used.

Which i think was too bad. I think most of them should have been included in the film. I feel they could have improved the film a bit. Poor decision in my opinion. I think it had some great new moves from Raffaelli and Belle. In my opinion is these the reasons for it:

worse editing in the fights, shaky camera, too little Parkour, too little fights for Belle, some poor camera angles and too little screen time for Belle

If they make a third film, which i think they will do. They should have learned the mistakes i mentioned from this film. I hope they can find an even balance between the fights and Parkour scenes. They would be perfect.