Colombiana opens in the mid-80s in Colombia (of all places). Young Cataleya Restrepo (Amandla Stenberg) witnesses the murder of her parents at the hands of Marco (Jordi Molla), a henchman for crime boss Don Luis (Beto Benites). She is able to get away and makes her way to America, where she is taken in by her Uncle Emilio (Cliff Curtis), who agrees to train her to be an assassin.

The story then leaps ahead 15 years. Cataleya (Zoe Saldana) is has implemented a plan to kill anyone who has been linked to Don Luis. Her latest assassination has taken her inside of a police station. The operation seems to go off without a hitch, but FBI Agent Ross (Lennie James) has been pursuing this murderer for four years, and he zeroes in on the police station killing in hopes of getting more leads. Meanwhile, Cataleya attempts to have a normal life when she's not on missions, and she's begun seeing Danny (Michael Vartan), although she's lied to him about many aspects of her life, including her name. She soon learns that her revenge has captured the attention of Don Luis and he's about to turn the tables on her.

In 1990, Besson turned the action genre on its head with La Femme Nikita, a violent film which featured a woman in the lead role. (The film was remade three years later in America as Point of No Return.) The groundbreaking movie laid the groundwork for movies where women could wield guns and fight just like their male counterparts. Besson would continue to feature butt-kicking women in The Fifth Element and The Messenger. Of course, other filmmakers would take a cue from these movies, such as the repugnant Resident Evil movies which featured Besson's ex-wife Mila Jovovich. Even Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh has jumped on-board with his upcoming film Haywire. Heck, Sucker Punch took this idea and went nuts with it.

Which brings us to the first problem with Colombiana -- none of it feels fresh or original. At this point in history, the idea of a female action hero has been done time and time again, and the sight of a woman mowing down bad guys with a machine or giving some guy a round-house to the head isn't very impressive. Unfortunately, Colombiana assumes that we're here just to see Saldana run around killing everyone which she can, and, in true exploitation fashion, the movie assures that she's wearing as little as possible while doing this.

Unfortunately, the movie has failed to bring any sort of story along with it. Besson and frequent collaborator and veteran writer Robert Mark Kamen present us with a very basic revenge plot which offers no twists or novel ideas. Cataleya sees her parents killed, grows up, and then kills for revenge. And that's about it. The simplistic nature of the story gives the movie the feel of a direct-to-cable movie instead of something which was produced by a veteran. The use of international locales gives the film a nice look and the action scenes are well-staged, but the overall effect is boring and the movie never delivers anything truly exciting.

In today's world, should it still feel unique to have a woman in an action film. The short answer to that is no. But, if the movie could offer something unique it would be worth our attention. However, Colombiana fails on that front and it feels like many other movies which have come before it.

Colombiana made me wonder if I could hide a catsuit under my clothes on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 25 Mbps. The image is sharp and clear, showing some mild grain and no defects from the source material. The grain is no doubt the result of an artistic choice on the part of Director Olivier Megaton, as opposed to any problem with the transfer. The image is never overly dark or bright, and the colors look good. The level of detail is very good, and the image shows a nice amount of depth. The Disc offers a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 3.5 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. This is an odd track, as it seems incapable of going above 4.0 Mbps, no matter how loud the explosion is. I've never seen anything quite like that. That aside, the track provides good surround sound effects during the action scenes, and we can often hear each individual gunshot and shell hit the ground. The explosions and gunfire provide good subwoofer effects which never overpower the dialogue.

The Colombiana Blu-ray Disc contains a handful of extras. "Colombiana: The Making of" (25 minutes) examines the scope of the film, as it was shot all over the world. We get comments from Director Olivier Megaton, as well as the cast and other crew members. The piece contains a wealth of on-set footage, much of which focuses on the stunts. "Cataleya's Journey" (10 minutes) examines the story with the cast and Megaton talking about the emotional power which drove the woman to do what she did. "Assassins" (12 minutes) plays like a continuation of the previous extra, as Saldana discusses her performance and how she approached the role. We then hear from other actors, as they discuss their parts. Saldana and Megaton discuss the actress' training in both fighting and weapons in "Training a Killer" (6 minutes). "Take the Ride" (8 minutes) plays like a condensed version of the other featurettes, as it shows the energetic nature on the set.