Rama’s SCREEN

How can something that was supposed to be promising end up to be so disappointing?! BABYLON A.D. should get nominated for one of the worsts Sci-Fi action flick of the year because by the time you finish watching this crapola… you’ll find yourself wondering what the hell just happened but don’t care enough to wanna to talk about it with your peers and try to figure things out because it’s too late, you’re already too upset. This is definitely a movie watching experience that will have only a few scenes to impress you but many more to let you down.

It is a world made for hardened warriors, one of whom, a mercenary known only as Toorop (Vin Diesel), lives by a simple survivor’s code: kill… or be killed. His latest assignment has him smuggling a young woman named Aurora from a convent in Kazakhstan to New York City.

Toorop, his new young charge Aurora (Melanie Thierry) and Aurora’s guardian Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh) embark on a 6,000 mile journey that takes them from Eastern Europe, through a refugee camp in “New Russia,” across the Bering Straight in a pilfered submarine, then through the frozen tundra of Alaska and Canada, and finally to New York. Facing obstacles at every turn, Toorop, the killer for hire, is tested like never before, in ways he could never have imagined - as he comes to understand that he is the custodian of the only hope for the future of mankind.For the first time in his life, Toorop has to make a choice: to make a difference or walk away and save himself.

Vin Diesel said in an interview that he compared BABYLON A.D. to the classic cult hit Blade Runner. I beg to differ.
What I really hate about BABYLON A.D. is that even though it’s based on a book, it fails to go the distance to cover essential things that would make audiences understand, audiences who have never read the book.
There are so many inconsistencies and moments that would make you scratch your head and go “huh?”
The timeline jumps from one to another unexpectedly, it’s like somebody’s holding a universal remote control and fast forward the whole thing.

The action sequences are not the stuff that will blow you away. They come and go way too fast, it’s borderline tame, makes the bad guys look like a bunch of flukes who can’t carry their job. There’s no challenge whatsoever.
I really hate how some of the chase scenes kinda remind you another Vin Diesel’s previous character, xXx.
By the way, I think Vin Dielsel does an okay job but if he keeps doing gigs like this he might be out of my ‘cool’ book eventually.

The post-apocalyptic world that the filmmaker has created looks like a recycled copy of the set of Alfonso Quaron’s Children of Men.
Maybe some might think that’s a good thing, I say the design is unoriginal.
And if the movie thinks the shielded, armored limo’s supposed to wow us, I say it works 50% of the time but that’s about it.
The movie overall seems rushed! It’s too focused on how to put in more action so much so that the story gets neglected.

Once again, the story is just not solid.
What’s the F*in’ point?
Sure you have a character who could either be carrying a virus or she could be like the coming Virgin Mary/Messiah, she happens to care about the value of life and Vin Diesel is one of those characters who just wants to do his job but then gets involved with the job itself. The thing is, none of those aspects are elaborated, they’re introduced to us all right, but then each of them would stop in the middle and become a string confusing cliffhangers that don’t connect with one another.

The word is that director Mathieu Kassovitz was upset because the movie didn’t turn out the way he wanted it to due to the Studio’s lack of courage and the fact that some scenes had to be cut out from the final print.
Maybe on the DVD, there should be some sort of a special feature prior to the movie where the director apologizes for how lame the movie is and explains to the viewers what it is that they’re about to see.
I think as far as directing goes, Mathieu Kassovitz is decent at what he does but the screenplay is just so terrible, you can’t help but to label BABYLON A.D. as a Mediocre.

* Place the cursor on the image below to check my grade for this film