pooldaug
I couldn't get enough of XIII one. Then the directing of two and the acting went south. It was hard to watch. Nothing seemed to be truly believable even by the actors. Their movements and feelings were so unbelievable and even fake that the story got lost. Did the director or writers change?
Even the same actors gave the feeling that they could hardly wait to get this over with. Very disappointing .
blanche-2
When the first female President of the US is assassinated during a speech, all hell breaks loose. This is the beginning of Conspiracy XIII. It looks as if the assassin has escaped. Some time later, an elderly couple find a wounded man whose parachute is stuck in a tree. He has no idea who he is. On his neck is a tattoo "XIII."The assassin is still being hunted, and when the young man uses the computer at the elderly couple's home, the government tracks him there, but he gets away. Some suggest this is an inside job, not from outside terrorists, possibly to influence the upcoming election.XIII is desperate to find out who he is, and what he's done. When he is finally captured, he finds out that he has been given a stolen identity, plastic surgery, and gone undercover to expose conspirators who want to overthrow the government. They are right in the government itself, running a secret agency. Lots of car chases, shootings, torture, the usual thing for this kind of film. It is somewhat interesting, if highly derivative. The first hour was better than the second.This TV movie, which was a pilot for a series (which I never saw) has been compared to Jason Bourne for obvious reasons. I found it nowhere as exciting as any of the Bourne films.I really liked Stephen Dorff - he has a quiet, sincere demeanor, and when he has to fight, get out of the way. The rest of the cast was okay, with the standout being Catarina Murino as Sam, a woman who helps him.
erik-687
Several reviews compare this to the Bourne series and I don't think it makes sense. This is not a super production and you cannot expect the same level of detail than the million $$ Bourne series. However, the plot is very good and really gripping plus the characters are quite interesting. In addition there is a good amount of action - maybe not the most revolutionary action scenes - and enough to keep you gripped from the beginning to the end of the show. The acting is good but don't expect anything too deep with complex personalities and characters. Someone compared this to Blade with Stephen Dorff, and IMO the acting is globally way better than Blade.I read some of the bad reviews there and I was worried something would be silly in the middle of the plot, but no. This is one of the best spy/action TV miniseries I have seen.
Henri Bronsgeest
In trying to update the story from the great comic book series, they ruined the plot. XIII was and is a great comic book series. I just reread it again. But the TV series tried to make it into a different story, yet using the character names from the comic book and adding a few. The suspense is missing. The humor is missing. Jones's character is diminished. In the comic book she also quite a fighter and love interest. The photo shop business was all added and not needed. XIII figures it out.It should have been a weekly series sticking to the original characters and plot.
AD
