Plot: When a corrupt cop and a villainous real-estate developer plan to destroy District 13 by manufacturing a false atrocity then an honest cop and a Robin Hood like criminal have to combine forces, again.
The problems with this film are twofold. The first problem is that this sequel is in every way inferior to its predecessor. An excess of plot leaves the two heroes squeezed out, the climax fight/mission is a damp squib, the music is a bad re-tread of the excellent soundtrack of the original, the editing/camera are both far less slick and satisfying, the villains are too bland and the lack of Leito's sister leaves this without an emotional core. There are fun moments, like Damien dressed as a Chinese tranny or a superb parkour sequence when Leito escapes his flat, but there are far too many stupid scenes, like a tiny Chinese cyberpunk prostitute gangster armed with a blade in her pony tail fighting police, or stupid ideas, like Damien's ridiculous tea-cosy hat, or flat moments, like the boring exposition scene between Leito and Damien in an air vent. In particular the plot is too convoluted, in an attempt to disguise that it is basically the same plot as the first film, which leads to the film forsaking the parkour chases and brilliantly realised ghettoes for the tedium of central Paris and bog-standard kung-fu in the third act.
The other big problem is the political schizophrenia. The film starts off quite explicit about the results of open borders, globalisation and mass immigration by depicting tribalised, racially exclusive gangs with their own ghettoes. The five gangs are all stereotypes: East Asians (computer nerds), Africans (primitive, tribal), Muslims (fanatical), Skinheads (neo-Nazi) and Gypsy (thieving). The camera lingers on the proletarian squalor, the brutalism of the concrete ghettos and the foreignness of these ghettoised cultures. Yet at the same time it ends with the gangs coming together into one broad multi-cultural alliance (Skinheads and Muslims? Really?) to shame the evil white capitalist French elites and show how they are more French than the French. The conclusion, when the President promises a new district, with parks and jobs, seems like an absurdity. So we get the bourgeoisie leering at the horror of the underclass whilst feeling sorry for them and excusing them as victims. The film can't decide if it wants to be a right-wing fantasy where the criminals get their just deserts at the hands of fascist police or whether it wants to be a left-wing fantasy where the immigrant criminals prove superior to the indigenous population.
The problems with this film are twofold. The first problem is that this sequel is in every way inferior to its predecessor. An excess of plot leaves the two heroes squeezed out, the climax fight/mission is a damp squib, the music is a bad re-tread of the excellent soundtrack of the original, the editing/camera are both far less slick and satisfying, the villains are too bland and the lack of Leito's sister leaves this without an emotional core. There are fun moments, like Damien dressed as a Chinese tranny or a superb parkour sequence when Leito escapes his flat, but there are far too many stupid scenes, like a tiny Chinese cyberpunk prostitute gangster armed with a blade in her pony tail fighting police, or stupid ideas, like Damien's ridiculous tea-cosy hat, or flat moments, like the boring exposition scene between Leito and Damien in an air vent. In particular the plot is too convoluted, in an attempt to disguise that it is basically the same plot as the first film, which leads to the film forsaking the parkour chases and brilliantly realised ghettoes for the tedium of central Paris and bog-standard kung-fu in the third act.
The other big problem is the political schizophrenia. The film starts off quite explicit about the results of open borders, globalisation and mass immigration by depicting tribalised, racially exclusive gangs with their own ghettoes. The five gangs are all stereotypes: East Asians (computer nerds), Africans (primitive, tribal), Muslims (fanatical), Skinheads (neo-Nazi) and Gypsy (thieving). The camera lingers on the proletarian squalor, the brutalism of the concrete ghettos and the foreignness of these ghettoised cultures. Yet at the same time it ends with the gangs coming together into one broad multi-cultural alliance (Skinheads and Muslims? Really?) to shame the evil white capitalist French elites and show how they are more French than the French. The conclusion, when the President promises a new district, with parks and jobs, seems like an absurdity. So we get the bourgeoisie leering at the horror of the underclass whilst feeling sorry for them and excusing them as victims. The film can't decide if it wants to be a right-wing fantasy where the criminals get their just deserts at the hands of fascist police or whether it wants to be a left-wing fantasy where the immigrant criminals prove superior to the indigenous population.