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Movie Review for Babylon A.D. (2008)
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Review #678 of 365 Movie Review of Babylon A.D. (2008) [PG-13] 90 minutes WIP™ Scale: $10.00 Where Viewed: United Artists Denver Pavilions Stadium 15, Denver, CO When Seen: 30 August 2008 @ 5:30 pm DVD Release Date: Unscheduled (please check back) After the Credits: There is nothing after the credits unfortunately.
Directed by: Mathieu Kassovitz (Gothika ) Screenplay by: Mathieu Kassovitz (Hate) • Joseph Simas (debut) • Eric Besnard (Housewarming ) based on novel by Maurice G. Dantec (check out the book)
Right out of the box, the biggest problem with Babylon A.D. is that it's really a French film. There's nothing wrong with French films. For most USAers they are an acquired taste. The French are not preoccupied with how films end, though, generally, and are perfectly happy to accept the story for what it us up until such time as everyone seemingly gets bored with what's going on it the thing just sort of ends. The French style is the French style. Love it of leave it. For this USAer, however, who has developed that acquired taste for French films, the lack of a solid ending for Mathieu Kassovitz's Babylon A.D. starring mostly Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, and Mélanie Thierry, practically renders the film moot. Well, not totally pointless, but almost. The story, derived somewhat loosely now after much studio editing from the Maurice G. Dantec novel called Babylon Babies(check out the book) which actually suits the movie better than the title of Babylon A.D. as well, concerns a time in the future when the world is in a decently larger amount of chaos than it is now if that's possible to believe.
… the lack of an ending practically renders the film moot.
[Note: There are claims by the director that the studio changed the film from what he intended, which makes sense. They should have listened to him because what ever he made, couldn't have been worse?] A mercenary for hire named Toorop (Diesel—as if there were no Frenchmen capable of this role) gets pegged by a Russian mobster named Gorsky (a nearly unrecognizable Gérard Depardieu) to transport a mysterious girl named Aurora (Thierry) to Manhattan for some mysterious reason. When his transport, a somewhat reinforced car seemingly borrowed out of Death Race lifted by magnetic chains hooked to a helicopter, arrives at the pick-up location in a remote and mountainous region of some former Soviet republic, he's greeted by the sturdy, no-nonsense governess Sister Rebeka (Yeoh). Clearly, there is something off about the beautiful young girl she's adopted as her own after being abandoned in the USA by her parents. Details slip out here and there indicating that she's the daughter of a power couple of some sort, a mad scientist-like physician and a high priestess of a religious cult called the Neolites. Eventually, as they begin their journey from Asia to the USA, we meet these two relatively wicked people and are left nearly to our own devices to ascertain who's good and who's bad. Ultimately, good and bad turn out to be entirely relative in this brave new Orwellian world. Toorop demands to know as much as Rebeka knows about the girl after she saves their life at a train station explosion. Honestly, though, Rebeka doesn't know much either, just that the girl is very special. She has uncanny abilities such as speaking 17 languages from the age of 2 and being able to pilot Russian submarines. The predictable climax of the film arrives relatively expeditiously as there's one thing this film is not and that's slow paced. There's a slight twist just after the climax, but then, all too quickly, the film ends leaving some of the biggest questions unanswered and with no news of a part II. Most fans of action adventure films in the narrative form of Mad Max, for example, will feel deprived of a proper ending and rightfully so. Alas, none is provided.
The main characters are overdeveloped by USA standards, and that's okay. It works except that it makes the lack of a proper conclusion all the more glaring. The actors take to their roles with ease each possessing just the right amount of courage and charisma to carry these strong yet curious roles. Each character has mysterious demons in his or her past, but these will have to be explored only in subtext and in the furrows of their collective brows. French director, Mathieu Kassovitz has the pacing and thrill of the action genre down, no doubt. This film moves and never lets up. It is staged in vignettes each advancing the story and revealing a snippet more about the characters. Bearing some resemblance to the dark style and tone of Children of Men, which too built up to a disappointing conclusion, Babylon A.D. lacks the moral tones and environmental messages that run so deeply through the superior predecessor. With a stronger ending, Babylon A.D. would have been a tad more fulfilling, and then it might have succeeded in the vein of another semi-look-alike, The Fifth Element.
Review-lite Babylon A.D. (2008) [max of 150 words]
The lack of an ending for Babylon A.D., starring mostly Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, and Mélanie Thierry, practically renders the film moot. The story, derived from the Maurice G. Dantec novel called Babylon Babies concerns a time in the future when the world is in a decently larger amount of chaos than it is now. A mercenary for hire named Toorop (Diesel—as if there were no Frenchmen capable of this role) gets hired by a Russian mobster named Gorsky (a nearly unrecognizable Gérard Depardieu) to transport the mysterious Aurora (Thierry) and her mysterious guardian (Yeoh) to Manhattan for some mysterious reason. French director Mathieu Kassovitz has the pacing and thrill of the action genre down, no doubt--this film never lets up. It is staged in vignettes each advancing the story and revealing a snippet more about the characters. Yet, with a stronger ending, Babylon A.D. would have been a tad more fulfilling, and then it might have succeeded in the vein of another semi-look-alike, The Fifth Element.
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which actually suits the movie better than the title of Babylon A.D. as well, concerns a time in the future when the world is in a decently larger amount of chaos than it is now if that's possible to believe. 
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