Babylon A.D. 2008
Babylon A.D. 2008
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz
Writer: Eric Besnard
Starring Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Melanie Thierry, Gerard Depardieu, Charlotte Rampling, Mark Strong and Lambert Wilson
I had been looking forward to seeing this film for awhile, as I am a big Vin Diesel fan, when it comes to his action films. I think The Chronicles of Riddick is one of the best science fiction and action films of the last ten years. I had heard mixed reviews about this but many people hate Diesel. I am sorry to say that this is a bad film and really only save by the casting of Diesel and Yeoh. Iater was like they decided to rip off every SF film that was made in the last 30 years. This film rips everything off from Blade Runner to Johnny Mnemonic. The script is a mess and there are way too few action scenes with Diesel and Yeoh. This actually makes me yearn for crap like A Man Apart.
The plot basics are this, It is the near future and the world is war torn. We are introduced to Toorop (Diesel), a down on his luck mercenary. He is approached violently at his hovel bytes men sent by a arms dealer, Gorsky (Depardieu) and he needs him to deliver a young girl to New York and will pay him one million dollars to do so. He meets up with Aurora (Thierry) and Sister Rebekka (Yeoh) her nun protector and proceeds to protect and usher them to New York. There are many hardships they face and it is soon discovered that Aurora has powers like empathy and she can blow up buildings if she is upset. They find out that she may be a viral agent carrier, but it is something much more amazing than that. It leads to a blow out climax in New York and with everything on the line Toorop must choose his side.
This was a poorly made and executed film, it is hard to know where to start. The direction by Kassovits was lazy and uninspired, many scenes felt cribbed by other films. One example is the snow jet chase scene which reminded me a lot of For Your Eyes Only. The script isn’t much better at best it is mediocre and pedestrian, and at worst just pure crap. Diesel and Yeoh are the only saving grace of the film and are never utilized the way they should be. The CGI is really badly done, the worst since I Am Legend. This film is a mess from beginning to end. The girl they are protecting Thierry, are seems like a rip off of River from Serenity and the girl from Minority Report. I would say skip this film, as it is not worth any sf film fan’s time.
This one gets 2 out of 5
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