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District 13: Ultimatum
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Magnolia Pictures Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (23rd June 2010). |
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The Film
 Luc Besson’s visual prowess in action movies is truly something to behold on film, but outside the director’s chair he’s become a Stephen King of sorts, throwing many different action movie ideas into scripts that he allows young directors to helm and make their own. With “District 13” (2004) he unleashed Pierre Morel and parkour onto screen letting Morel’s talent work with a simple enough premise of some sweet parkour action. After Morel moved on to make the amazing “Taken” (2009), Besson threw together the script for a sequel “District 13: Ultimatum.” Helmed by Patrick Alessandrin who lacks the spark and focus on the right elements that Morel and Besson seem to have a superb grasp of. Picking up three years after the ending of “District 13,” the district has essentially been split into a power struggle between five ethnocentric gang/drug lords with Leïto (David Belle) working on seemingly friendly terms between the five. Outside the district’s walls, Capt. Damien Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli) is still playing supercop, taking down drug dealers using his detective and fighting skills. But even a supercop can’t avoid getting set up as a real estate developer looks to swoop in on the District 13 territory by having corrupt police frame one of the gangs as cop killers, starting an assault on the district and getting tomasso off the trail by trying to lock him away. Fortunately Tomaso gets a hold of Leïto and the two make their way back through the district to track the government corruption back to the source and unite the district against exploitation. The generally broad strokes in a Besson script are typically overcome with some great action sequences and incredibly effective directing, but Alessandrin lacks the vision of Besson to pull it off. On some action shots he goes too tight, others he goes too wide, and at times he throws in cuts that break up the flow of the action, distracting from the continuous movment of parkour that makes it so hypnotizing to watch on screen. The sequences are still fairly visually stimulating and entertaining to see done, but they never wow you. Great parkour action sequences are built around long takes and angles just wide enough so you can feel there were no wires, just some talented athletes and acrobatics, but Alessandrin doesn’t show any of that. And with a script as heavy handed as “Ultimatum,” the lack of flourish and polish makes the movie feel too silly without adding the level of badass action that can really exploit the entertainment factor. Besson has a good enough message about corrupt cops, corrupt government and communities taking control of their destinies in the face of a corrupt capitalist system that values their property more than their lives, but it’s all a little forced into a Besson action format that Alessandrin just doesn’t have the talent to pull off in the right way. Which brings us right back to the action sequences that Alessandrin doesn’t quite get, he maybe could have just taken a good lesson from David Belle who seems to understand the flow of movement better than Alessandrin can capture on film. Belle’s talent for stuntwork and movement are amazing, but not well enough exploited in the movie as he and Raffaelli have some good sequences that just don’t impress as much as you think they would. The two are fine enough actors for their roles and the supporting cast has enough depth to keep the movie going but without the right director pushing the action, some gets just lost in translation. Ultimately, I’m underwhelmed with what should have been a great display of parkour on film. Morel knew what was going on and understood what makes parkour sweet to see, but Alessandrin treats parkour as just another movie gimmick, slipping in cuts that break the flow of the action without adding in the frantic Neveldine/Taylor smash cut frenzy that can be equally as exciting. There are a moments when it seems like things are about to ramp up and Alessandrin finally seems to get it, but then it cuts, gets too close or just seems really generic. So in spite of all this unrealized potential, “Ultimatum” manages to be entertaining, but needs to speed up the action and get some more style to make it truly effective.
Video
In the 2.35:1 aspect ratio with VC-1 encoding in 1080p 24/fps, the movie has the nice clean and crisp look of a high definition film on Blu-ray. Many of the outdoor shots manage to exploit the clarity brought on by the natural lighting and the indoor scenes manage to use the low light contrast to good effect while maintaining good clarity and contrast and only odd grain in a couple scenes. It works against the look of the film at times by making the big CG shots glaringly obvious. Though it makes a couple scenes a little cheesier, the transfer doesn’t distract from the film’s look and comes through nicely.
Audio
Really, depending on preference the audio track can make or break the movie off the bat. Initially the film loads with the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that just sounds ridiculous. Not only are these dubbing actors nothing like the French voices, but I’ve seen 70’s Italian horror movies that have better synching with the background noises. With all the emotion of a public radio cooking show, the voice actors just drift through the script like it was a book on tape. At times it’s so laughably bad it’s an entirely different film, but if you want to actually enjoy the movie, know French or take the time to read subtitles because it’s amazing how much better sounding the film is with the French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround (both are in 48kHz/24-bit). Not only do you hear some people actually acting, but the grunts seem far less cheesy and the voices sound like human beings who actually walk on the earth rather than generated by a synthesizer. English, English Narrative, English for the hearing impaired and Spanish subtitles are all available.
Extras
The disc comes with a grouping of special features including a making-of featurette, production diary featurette and a promo featurette, deleted and extended scenes, bonus trailers, BD-Live and bookmarks. Below is a closer look. First up is the “Making of ‘District 13: Ultimatum’” featurette which runs for 26 minutes and 34 seconds. Speaking with the main people involved in the film including Alessandrin, Belle and Raffaelli it covers everything from Besson offering Alessandrin the script to Raffaelli choreographing the fights and a great amount of behind-the-scenes shots at the parkour scenes. The behind-the-scenes footage of the fights and chase sequences really show off how Alessandrin is missing the point on parkour, but it’s not a bad making of. Even if the entire piece has the feel of a long presser, the behind the scenes fight and chase footage is nice. Next up is the “Production Diary” featurette which runs for 34 minutes and 32 seconds, spanning 19 episodes smashed into one lengthy featurette. showing some more behind-the-scenes footage, showing the setup for different scenes with some joking on the set and showing how Raffaelli directs the performers for stunts and how Alessandrin talks about setting up some of the shots in the film. More good behind-the-scenes shots and footage, as well as interviews with various random actors depending on the scene covered and someone explaining what’s being filmed that day. The deleted scene and extended scenes are all smashed together into one big reel, running 9 minutes and 22 seconds. The opening scene is just an extended section of the escape from the police building, running 5 minutes and 3 seconds. Next is a deleted scene of the invasion of the government compound, which runs 41 seconds. More shots of the assault on the compound, different locale, running 22 seconds. More compound assault, different fighers, running 18 seconds. This time it’s Ali-K (La Fouine) beating up government guys while Leïto and Tomaso assault elsewhere, 1 minute 4 seconds. Even more compound assault, but all together now, 30 seconds. The final compound assault scene, 59 seconds. Finally some cut action of Tomaso escaping the club, running about 25 seconds. “HDNet: A Look at District 13 Ultimatum” featurette runs for 4 minutes and 43 seconds. The first HD special feature, it’s a promotional piece for the film featuring a disembodied voice selling you on the movie. Bonus trailers on the disc include: - “Red Cliff” runs for 2 minutes and 9 seconds. - “The Warlords” runs for 2 minutes and 9 seconds. - “Ong Bak 2: The Beginning” runs for 1 minute and 39 seconds. - “HDNet” runs for 1 minute and 2 seconds. The disc is also BD-Live enabled, though as of this writing trying to access it just tells you to check back for updates. There are also bookmarks to mark your favorite scenes.
Overall
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