XIII: A Conspiração

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.

just finished watching this... it didn't take long before i realized, 'oh...'24' clone....dorf playing the sutherland role... i'd like to use the pun that the reason it's called '13' is because it's about half as good, but that wouldn't be true...it's almost as good or better than some of '24'. but, still, a clone...lots of what you'll see here, you've seen before... but it's not bad for television... the irony i speak of in the heading is that when i came here, to IMDb, to comment, the first recommendation from 'the database' towards the bottom of the title page of 13 is, of course, '24'... parts of it were ridiculous...people don't have conversations in a life or death hand to hand combat situation...they just try to survive...there were other moments i found ridiculous to the point of comically amusing... but not enough for me not to recommend this if you don't mind what i've already stated... it seems to be a cut above 'regular TV fare'. as is '24'.. just don't expect anything new here...

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've been a fan of the comics since I first read them years ago, so I've approached every adaptation I have found with a hope that it would do them justice, and a fear that it wouldn't. And yes, this is similar to the Bourne series, as I understand it, Van Hamme, the author, liked the Ludlum book(s?), and used some of the same ideas. This and the 2003 video game both get certain(but not necessarily the same) things right, whilst failing on others. In tone, this comes fairly close. It's disturbing, dark and, at times, the ideas in this are brutal. The humor in this, while it's relatively limited(and, frankly, doesn't all work, it can feel forced), is perhaps a tad much. The overall accuracy is reasonable, and several changes do make sense. They updated the story to present day(it was, when it was a graphic novel, as well, but the first one came out 14 years ago), and thus also made it more modern, adding tech and such, without that taking over. Several of the characters are changed(a couple are combined, as well) and not all of the casting makes perfect sense(what on Earth happened to Jones? Sure, she looks the part, but that's about it). The plot is interesting and captured and kept my attention throughout. It doesn't develop entirely the same, though a good bit of the core of it is intact. The awesome abilities are definitely still there. Dorff and Kilmer are great. I've heard this compared to the television show 24, and I suppose I can see why. It should be noted that not all of those aspects were foreign to this franchise before this hit small screens. Episode 1 ends in a way that ought to get viewers back for the second half(which starts with repetitions of plenty of what happened in the first one) of the three hour running time. The ending is not going to satisfy everyone, however, the source material taken into account, and the fact that it isn't easy to finish it, especially in this amount of time. The cinematography and editing are excellent, the action is very well-done and exciting. The music is well-done. The production values leave little to be desired. The acting varies, as does the dialog, but there are cool moments in this. This isn't terribly graphically violent, and there's no sex. Still, it is not intended for children, and it doesn't feel like it was made to be less strong. Language is mild and infrequent, if even that. I recommend this to fans of the original(as with any other translation from one medium to another, do not expect everything to be the same), as well as anyone who enjoys this type of film/mini. 7/10

I love the show 24. This is close but not a duplicate --

I love the movies of Bourne Identity, again close but no cigar.

This is an original story line depicted in the make-up of a very talented director and writer.

If you want action, adventure, excitement, intrigue then this is the movie for you. I don't understand all of the negative feed back on this movie. I really enjoyed it.

Its a lot better than most of the so called action adventure movies out so far.

Thumbs up -- 8/10