When the first District 13 movie came out five years back it was sold as “the freerunning movie”. It was the first time that parkour was seen in a big-screen movie, it was an impressive sight too, as was the martial arts, which was a match for anything out of Hong Kong, and more impressive because it was a Frenchman without wires. It was also set in a near-future Parisian dystopia with political overtones. Not a great story, but plenty of action to make up for it. Luc Besson has now made a sequel that does more of the same.
Now it’s 2013, three years after the events of the first movie, and it appears that despite government promises nothing has changed in District 13, the multi-ethnic ghetto notorious for its gangs, drug dealers and killers. A consortium of corrupt cops and government officials is conspiring to cause civil unrest within D13 with a view to finding an excuse to raze the area and cash in on its redevelopment. When a local kid accidentally uncovers the plot, the district’s resident idealist Leito (Belle) and elite law-enforcer Damien Tomaso (Raffaelli) are reunited in a bid to bring peace to the troubled neighbourhood and to expose the conspiracy before a proposed air-strike can destroy the area Leito calls home.
It is really just more of the same, there’s just more of it, and let’s face it, that’s not a bad thing. It’s attempt at political satire is pretty thin and blantantly obvious, but this is really just an outrageous action movie that doesn’t really need subtlety. Belle is running and jumping all over the place with moves that seem to defy physics and physicality, and Raffaelli’s martial arts are still a marvel to watch, even if they aren’t a match for Tony Jaa’s. Even though it is subtitled you are much better off watching the action than reading the rather weak dialogue.
This is French cinema without pretensions.
DISTRICT 13: ULTIMATUM (cert. tbc) is released by Momentum Pictures and will open at selected UK cinemas on 2nd October 2009.