What
an interesting career path Luc Besson has chosen. The French director
was once heralded as bringing in the newest New Wave of French cinema
with his stylish kinetic action masterpieces, 1990’s La Femme Nikita and
1994’s Léon {AKA: The Professional}. Even campy, nonsensical fare
like 1997’s the Fifth Element were crowd pleasers due to Besson’s
unrelenting sense of style and love of a good fight sequence. Besson
has made it clear he’s happiest behind the scenes writing and producing
the types of films he would like to see. In this spirit came popcorn
epics like The Transporter series, Jet Li’s Kiss of the Dragon {2001}
and Danny the Dog {2005} and his foray into the world of parkour, 2004’s
District 13. The latter of these he enjoyed so much that he made a
sequel, District 13: Ultimatum.
In the
future, the slums of Paris will be really bad. So bad in fact, that
they will be sectioned off and quarantined so as not to infect the rest
of the France with their inhabitants’ poverty or criminal enterprise.
One such district is number 13; a hive of subjugation and villainy.
Gangs of Muslims, Africans, Asians, Skinheads and other weapon-toting
vice, rule the daily goings-on inside the ghetto, each one sectioning
off their own little corner of the world. The area has become a blot on
the rest of society, one that some factions of the government will do
anything to remove even if it means stretching the French constitution a
little; after all, who’ll notice if a few thousand of the lowest of the
low go missing? Well, this flies in the face of humanity and the ideals
of liberté, égalité, fraternité that is the cornerstone of French
justice. Also, a lot of people live in District 13 might not want their
houses blown up. So against these forces of exterminating evil leap
Captain Damien Tomaso and D13 urchin Leito, unlikely friends since the
previous threat to D13 a few years back. It is with justice and right
on their side that the two will unite the gangland of District 13 to
rise up against the government threat saving not only the slum, but also
save the constitution of France from being overtaken by shadowy and
illegal masters for fun and profit.
Despite beginning exactly where the original film ended, everything in
District 13: Ultimatum is turned a full notch lower than its eye-popping
predecessor. Most grievously, there are less of the high flying leaps
and jumps that make parkour, or free-running such a stunning thing to
watch and is the heart of the film. This is mostly because there’s less
involvement with Leito, played by parkour founder David Belle. Most of
the concentration of the action focuses on Cyril Raffaelli as Tomaso and
his exemplary martial arts skills. Sadly, these are overshadowed by
some godawful camera angles and hyperactive edits. Why does no one heed
my keep-the-camera-still rants? Maybe I should get them translated into
French? Much of the stuntwork appears to be done wire-free and the
multiple shots of the same impossible manoeuvre shot form different
angles seem to exist to attest to that. The canned premise of the
government not only reneging on their promise in the previous film to
improve life for the D13 inhabitants, but now going as far as to
obliterate them and make them the scapegoat for sneaky motives funded by
the “Harriburton” military defense firm (Très subtile, n'est-il pas?),
isn’t particularly original. Now the fight for survival becomes a fight
for all of France and who cares? In the end, even the gang leaders want
their respective slummy headquarters blown up, which negates the entire
argument against the alleged bad guys. Note to the filmmakers; I don’t
know what bet he lost but I never, ever want to see Cyril Raffaelli in
drag again wearing a miniskirt revealing full butt cleavage. This
horror occurs in an early sequence that goes on way too long and reveals
the problems with the script that requires this repetitive (- and
nasty) filler.
We
also briefly meet the local gang leaders, particularly the fetching
Elodie Yung as Tao, the Asian mob boss whose martial arts skills and
long, lethal plait were clearly honed at the Temple of Angela Mao. I
would have been thrilled to see more of her and more of the skills of
the others that make them supposedly so scary, but they are brought out
in the last twenty minutes of the film and, like everything else here,
remain underdeveloped.
Still,
for mindless popcorn-chomping fun it’s hard to beat guys flipping
vertically from one high-rise patio to another and the challenges to
gravity David Belle is known for. The pity is that there’s just not
enough of it and the breakneck pacing of the original film is just not
here. Enjoyable enough to watch on the big screen, District 13:
Ultimatum is still an auto-pilot shell of its sire.
~ The
Lady Miz Diva
Feb 5th,
2010
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