Don't watch Banlieue 13: Ultimatum in the English dub - that's the first mistake. The original French audio/English subtitled version is far superior. From what I can remember some of the film was butchered out for the dubbed cut. Secondly, the ending made perfect sense - why would folks want to move back into, and live in, a shithole, when levelling the place with missiles and subsequently rebuilding it into a better living environment is a much better idea? A bit of temporary inconvenience when the rebuilding process is going on is well worth the pain if you are not living in squalor.
The makers pulled a quite clever bait and switch plot on their audience, and indeed one I wasn't expecting. It didn't really ping for me until a while afterwards just how smart the makers were.
It just doesn't make thematic sense. The first movie was all about them trying to keep the district from being demolished so that the government could rebuild better housing and now the second movie has them deciding it's OK after all? The funny thing is, I could almost buy it if it were the decision of the two protagonists. They gave their blood, sweat, and tears to give the district a chance. They've evacuated the buildings (which means that, in the earlier scene, the General was telling the truth, which surprised me). And the current system, with gangs led by violent warlords isn't working. I do not buy said warlords suddenly deciding they're all good friends and it's a good idea to demolish all of the money, drugs, and equipment they've amassed to hold their power base.
Even with the duo from the first film making the decision, it's dumb as they have no guarantee the buildings were actually cleared (how often, in these movies, are there infirm people who can't movie, kids who've holed up somewhere inaccessible, and people who simply refuse to move?) and the entire narration of the opening of the movie is that the government never followed up on their promises. And we're to expect that the government is going to rebuild everything, that we're not going to just have more "insufficient funds" and possibly a regime change as the current President steps down?
And I do generally prefer to watch movies with the original language, but I was watching it with my wife and subtitles give her a headache if she has to use them as the primary method of understanding the dialogue. Oh, and the scene in the credits, as best I can tell from descriptions, is basically an outtake with the actors BSing as their characters about the minor architect character hired by the bad guy and how he's a big druggie.
Saw it last night with my wife. I'd loved the first movie and was thrilled to learn they had a sequel. I was disappointed. Braindead villains, overly-flashy martial arts, and an abrupt ending which made no sense (all of the racist stereotypes including the skinhead decide that they're all family and that it was best for the government to blow up their neighborhood. I kept expecting some sort of a twist where the laser target indicators had been moved to government buildings, something to make it make more sense... but nothing.
It is possible that I fell prey to a Dub-Induced Plot Hole since I watched it in English (and the dubbing is hilariously bad in places, starting to resemble one of those old Kung Fu flicks with inappropriate accents, added laughs to match the mouth flaps, etc). I've also just now learned that there's apparently a scene during the credits. Maybe that might explain something?