Having loved Vin Diesal in PITCH BLACK and it’s sequel THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK I had high hopes for the futuristic post-apocalyptic film BABYLON A.D. but the film missed the mark completely. This film starts off well enough with it being in the future and the world is held together by the propaganda of the High Priestess (Charlotte Rampling). Vin Diesal plays Toorop, a mercenary whom we learn very quickly lives by a strict code of honor in whatever job he takes next.
He is soon hired by an underground low-life Gorsky (Gerard Depardieu) to escort a woman into America, a country whose borders are on lock down and they only allow a certain “breed” to enter of which he does not belong yet he strives to return. He is joined on this journey by Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh) who is ward to his package Aurora (Melanie Thierry), who harbors a dark secret that puts all of there lives in danger. Aurora has spent her entire life in a monastery and thus knows nothing of the outside world in which they are to embark. As they try to make their way into America they are pursued by a group of anarchist who claim to be sent by Aurora’s dead father.
The film starts off okay as an futuristic action film (when the action does in fact come) but the film suffers from trying to be a complex story about the impending future of humanity and its reliance of the image of a religious deity to hold power over it. The film becomes really complicated in its last twenty minutes and it falls apart real quickly as if the film is trying to be the first part in a series of films (ala THE GOLDEN COMPASS), but instead the film falls flat on its face.
The other bad thing about the film is the unoriginality of the action and fight choreography which makes the film seem like something you’ve already seen better in some other film. This is a surprise coming from director Mathieu Kassavitz who did such a great job on THE CRIMSON RIVERS or even GOTHIKA. It also seems like Diesal is somewhere else as his Toorop resembles Riddick just a tad too much and not in the good way. Although its always good to see Yeoh in American films, like her other film this year THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR, she has even less to do in this film then in that one. The film just has too many shortcomings for me to overlook.
He is soon hired by an underground low-life Gorsky (Gerard Depardieu) to escort a woman into America, a country whose borders are on lock down and they only allow a certain “breed” to enter of which he does not belong yet he strives to return. He is joined on this journey by Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh) who is ward to his package Aurora (Melanie Thierry), who harbors a dark secret that puts all of there lives in danger. Aurora has spent her entire life in a monastery and thus knows nothing of the outside world in which they are to embark. As they try to make their way into America they are pursued by a group of anarchist who claim to be sent by Aurora’s dead father.
The film starts off okay as an futuristic action film (when the action does in fact come) but the film suffers from trying to be a complex story about the impending future of humanity and its reliance of the image of a religious deity to hold power over it. The film becomes really complicated in its last twenty minutes and it falls apart real quickly as if the film is trying to be the first part in a series of films (ala THE GOLDEN COMPASS), but instead the film falls flat on its face.
The other bad thing about the film is the unoriginality of the action and fight choreography which makes the film seem like something you’ve already seen better in some other film. This is a surprise coming from director Mathieu Kassavitz who did such a great job on THE CRIMSON RIVERS or even GOTHIKA. It also seems like Diesal is somewhere else as his Toorop resembles Riddick just a tad too much and not in the good way. Although its always good to see Yeoh in American films, like her other film this year THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR, she has even less to do in this film then in that one. The film just has too many shortcomings for me to overlook.
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