Francis A. Breen, Jr., M.D. XIII: The Conspiracy appears to get off to a decent start, but as the film unrolls it quickly unravels. The action slows down, and boring, repetitive, nonsensical babbling quickly takes over. Unfortunately, nothing is said that makes any sense - just confusing hogwash about politicians, spies, an emerging election and amnesia. The amnesiac was the luckiest of the cast. At least he had a justification for not knowing what was going on. Instead of the discussions between the actors and actresses delineating the preceding action, and setting up the next round of fisticuffs, explosions, and torture, they do nothing but randomly bump the film in a different, unexplained direction. This serves only to give the actors, who randomly pop in and out, just some time to create a new situation or two that only adds to the confusion. Wherever this dog is barking, there must be a better movie playing at a theater within walking distance. Take the walk. Or if you're on your sofa, stretch for the controls and flip the TV dial randomly and you'll come up with a better choice. This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

thicheval I rode the comic book when it has been edited (more than 15 years ago) and I remember it was a great book with a great story. I was expecting a good movie when I started watching XIII, and I have to say it has been technically well made.But the writer belongs to the worst category according to me, the one who does movies without understanding life, without knowing what he's speaking about, and what he's living in. I'd like to draw up all the many inconsistent details but it would just be a loss of time. It is clear that the writer nor the director doesn't know anything about firearms or the way a professional group fight, especially against one isolated man.Also it was so ridiculous to watch the woman who has to set up the bomb going for a walk or work as a security guard she's supposed to be, and come back 2 times to finish setting up the bomb! Any intelligent being would set it up in one time before hiding it. Also she brought a nuclear bomb, but no firearm to protect it, and no soldier to help her...The characters are also inconsistent in many ways they act.It makes me sick when I think about the money we all give to Hollywood studios just to waste it this way (and there are plenty productions far worse than this one), and after that they complain about piracy??? There can be some bad movies (we all do mistakes) or some that will not be appreciated by everyone, but Hollywood does something like one good movie for a hundred who only deserves to go directly to trash (and no DVD in the interim). This make me say most movie studios are the first pirates, hijacking people's money :SJean Van Hamme and William Vance did a great work with their comic books who deserved a great Hollywood production, but here just expect something you will laugh about with your friends when you're bored.

Jonathan Maxwell Reeves ***spoiler alert*** As a Belgian I'am a big fan of the original comic books of XIII. I own them all. There're 19 books who tell the complete story of XIII and now a second series has started more focusing on the other characters from the original series like how the Mongoose became the contract-killer as we know him.I saw an article somewhere that said this mini series would be the story of the events from the first two books in the series originally called 'The Day of The Black Sun' and 'Where the Indian goes'. I just saw the 2 episodes and I think there's maybe 20% left of the original XIII story. How disappointing !!! The events you see are from the first 5 books skipping book 3 and 4 'All the Tears of Hell' (XIII in prison) and 'SPADS' (XIII back in training) for some reason. There're also some parts of the 8th book in the series called 'XIII against I' to create an open ending. They changed so many things that are important in the complete mystery. Why ? After the 4 first books you get the 5th one called 'Red Alert'. That looks a little bit (with a lot of imagination) like the events in the second part of the movie, but there's never a chemical bomb involved for instance. Chemical bombs is the game of Jack Bauer in 24, not of XIII. Other strange changes are for instance the character of Sally Sheridan. She doesn't exist in the comics. It's Wally's brother William Sheridian that's been shot at the beginning. XIII doesn't come down with a parachute, he washes up on a shore and the events that follow do not happen in a snowy landscape. The General Carrington in the books is a big guy and a heavy cigar smoker. You almost never see him without his cigar. He looks a bit like actor Lee Marvin. Stephen McHattie doesn't look like the Carrington from the books at all. The General is not even NSA in the books, he's a general in the normal military but former commander of SPADS (Special Assault and Destroying Sections) a special unit that trained XIII. Colonel Amos is (probably) NSA, but in the books he's an old man (60 - 65 years old) not the young guy as played by Greg Bryk. The Mongoose is a creepy looking bald guy who doesn't die in the first 5 books this movie is based on. The incidents from XIII's past happened in South America not in Afghanistan. Parts of the clues that will lead to the true identity of XIII will be found in South America not in Afghanistan at all. Where are Felicity Kendall, Betty Barnowsky and the terrible Irina Svetlanova ? Three very important recurring characters in the books. All gone !!!This movie looks nice if you don't know the books. It's nice entertainment if you like an action movie like there're 12 in a dozen. If you know the books you would be very disappointed too I guess. This could have been done a lot better. They should have made a single episode of each book and should have stayed on the original storyline with a cast that looks at least a bit like the characters in the books. You don't give Batman a green cape or Superman a yellow suit and red hair do you ? They did the same in the past with Largo Winch (from the same author) and now they're doing it with XIII. They turn one of the best comic book series ever made into an ordinary 2 episode TV-movie. If they would ask me to write the screenplay I would make something great of it...at least better then the two episodes I just saw. It's always been my big dream to write the screenplay for a XIII TV-series and maybe it's time to start writing on it and then go and talk with author Jean Van Hamme. I really was looking forward to see this production, but I'am very disappointed now. I hope they once will make a better series of it that will cover the complete and true XIII mystery as written by the comic book author and not some kind of digest told in 3 hours. The story of XIII is way to complex to tell in just 3 hours.

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.