“Babylon A.D.” falls way short of mediocrity
5:58 p.m. Friday, September 5, 2008
You know a movie is going to stink when its untalented director bashes it in public as garbage and the movie this guy’s most noted for is the horrible film “Gothika.” That’s the case with director Mathieu Kassovitz sci-fi thriller “Babylon A.D.”
Toorop (Vin Diesel) is mercenary who’s all business, and he has to be considering the horrible condition the world is in at this time. Toorop is forced into a mission by a crime boss (Gerard Depardieu) to escort Aurora (Melanie Thierry) along with her guardian (Michelle Yeoh) to New York City.
Aurora possesses special powers that are the desire of an evil advanced religion in their quest for world domination.
There is not one original moment in “Babylon A.D.” and that’s too bad.
Kassovitz borrows so many ideas from other more significant and
better made sci-fi films that its ridiculous. The movie really plays out like a much lesser version of the terrific and thought-provoking “Children of Men.”
In this film Kassovitz has the opportunity to direct the great martial arts icon Yeoh and gives her nothing to do. I kept waiting for her to breakout into a kick butt action sequence to show off her amazing martial arts fighting ability. Instead I received a number of fight scenes that were dark and shot so close that you couldn’t make out what the heck was going on. That irritated me, and it was a mistake that even a beginning director wouldn’t make, especially when you are directing an action flick.
Diesel is the perfect actor to play such a one-dimensional character.
Diesel is just fine when he’s playing these parts, and he was attempting to get away from similar roles like that even though they made him a household name. Yeoh needs a better agent that flat out tells her to stay clear of parts like this that limit the skills she possesses. Perhaps her current agent is afraid she will kick him in the face, but nevertheless I wish she was in better movies.
“Babylon A.D.” is one of those movies that is not worth the large amounts of money that it takes to go to the movies today, but it’s just stupid enough to gain a future cult audience on DVD.
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