XIII: The Conspiracy

The quality of this should be expected. For a TV mini-series, it's not terrible, but it's not that great either.

The Jason Bourne comparisons are warranted, as we open with an event, and then a trained assassin is found with no knowledge of who he is, or how he got to where he was dumped.

Then follows a bunch of action, a lot of discovery, and some pretty unbelievable set ups & sequences.

I'm just amazed at how bad Stephen Dorff is as an actor. I really enjoyed him in Blade, and I liked him in a few other movies that I saw after that. In this, he's just plain bad. He says all of his lines in a strained manner, as if he's trying to show that he's just a general bad ass. I couldn't grasp why he was trying so hard to prove that he's a tough guy. If you want to compare Bourne to this, Damon plays Bourne with restraint. He doesn't need to prove he's a bad ass by speaking. His actions do that. Dorff shows no remorse for anything he does. In this type of movie, we have to believe that Dorff's character wants to really find out what happened to him, but because of the way he delivers his lines, it's almost as if he doesn't really care, he just wants to kill anyone involved in putting him in these situations.

I had to remind myself continually that this is a made for TV mini-series, which is credit to the cinematographer, and the director. Most of the action sequences are pretty intense, and not campy. The hand to hand combat scenes are especially crisp, and were a highlight for me.

There were still many sequences of events that were just terrible, and didn't fit any sort of realistic time line, Dorff recovers from major injuries in record time, people travel massive distances in 30 minutes as if they were telaported there. Again, it's TV so I can suspend my disbelief a little for these types of things.

One major plus is Catrina Murino as Sam. She is GORGEOUS and worth watching. I couldn't take my eyes off her every time she was on the screen. I wish they would have done more with her character, and I really hope to see more of her in upcoming movies. Her acting was also very believable, even though there's no way someone that good looking just lives in New York as a resident, and isn't a model or celebrity. I remember her from Casino Royale, and she did well there also.

Val Kilmer also does a pretty good job in his role. He's more of a complimentary player in this movie. He's generally ominous as the bad commander, and it's a pretty believable turn.

If you have nothing better to do but watch a fun little mini-series, I would say go for it, but I can't recommend you go out of your way to find this thing, as there's nothing special to report.

I just watched this as they aired the series as one 171-minute long movie, but it didn't feel long at all since there's always something interesting or at least exciting going on in this show/movie. Honestly, I'm not that familiar with the Bourne character or saga (I've only seen one of the installments, plus the older TV show with Richard Chamberlain as Bourne) but I think this one is enjoyable on its own terms.

The premise is similar to "Bourne": a man wakes up suffering from heavy amnesia, unable to remember his name or any whereabouts about his life before that moment. He soon finds out that the president of the US has been assassinated and that he is being chased after, and that he has a tattoo on his upper chest with the number "XIII". From that on, he will have to survive and find out who he is and why he has so many and such fierce enemies.

The plot is quite smart, it does not provide (or need) many cliffhangers or unexpected turns until the final part. It is also a smarter-than-average plot for what you would expect from an action movie. The characters are not terribly well developed, but all or most main actors do a good job.

Excellent series indeed! The story seems to be very close to the original graphic novel, except for the first part. They head to change the opening sequence in the comic, or the way XIII (Jason, or is he?)lost his memory. The writer of the comic novel (Jean Van Hamme - Belgian)admitted that he stole this scene from the book (written by Ludlum)that was the original story line for the Jason Bourne-trilogy.

In pre-Obama times, the producers dared in their future to have a non Caucasian male for a president. Good on them!

Must see for all graphic novel lovers! This one will put Belgian graphic novels on the international map again. Tintin with an attitude!

I saw the first part of 'XIII' this week on french TV, and I can't wait for the second part to be broadcast. Of course some will think of Jason Bourne, but the plot isn't the same and the original comic book was released in 1984 ! there are some differences between the movie and the book, but it is not easy to resume 19 books in a two-part movie. Without spoiling the story, I can say I didn't expect the end of the first part before seeing it. Stephen Dorff is good in the main character, but it is more pleasant to watch Val Kilmer as the villain who is, in my opinion, an excellent actor who's not enough seen in theaters.

Several reviews compare this to the Bourne series and I don't think it makes sense. This is not a super production and you cannot expect the same level of detail than the million $$ Bourne series. However, the plot is very good and really gripping plus the characters are quite interesting. In addition there is a good amount of action - maybe not the most revolutionary action scenes - and enough to keep you gripped from the beginning to the end of the show. The acting is good but don't expect anything too deep with complex personalities and characters. Someone compared this to Blade with Stephen Dorff, and IMO the acting is globally way better than Blade.

I read some of the bad reviews there and I was worried something would be silly in the middle of the plot, but no. This is one of the best spy/action TV miniseries I have seen.