Babylon A.D.
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Movie Reviews of Babylon A.D.
Movie Review: cool movie except the final chapter
Summary: 3 Stars
a cool movie ,but the final chapter is deceptive.
good picture quality and sound.
a movie to go along with some popcorn.
not a must hava,but a good movie in general.
Movie Review: Pretty dumb, but nowhere near as bad as advertised.
Summary: 2 Stars
Babylon A.D. (Matthieu Kassovitz, 2008)
Despite all the horrible things I'd heard about this movie, I had to wonder how you could pair the director of La Haine and the star of Multi-Facial and come up with something bad. And to be fair, "bad" is a kind of relative term. I can see where people who are only exposed to mainstream cinema might think it's one of the worst things they saw in 2008, but, like The Chronicles of Riddick, another unjustly trashed Diesel vehicle, this wasn't even the worst movie I saw this week. (By my count, in the past seven days, I've seen three movies that were demonstrably worse than this and two more of roughly the same level of quality.) Yeah, it's nothing more than a mindless action movie, certainly not of the quality I'd expect from a director like Kassovitz, but if you put aside the expectations that come with a director and cast of this quality, it's like Charlie Brown's christmas tree; scraggly, sure, but with a spark that's been missing from all the other aluminum trees on the lot.
Plot: Toorop (Vin Diesel) is an American expat living in Russia, a mercenary who's been kicked out of his home country after finding himself on the terrorist list. He's hired by the similarly mercenary Gorsky (Gerard Depardieu) for a sensitive mission: to deliver a girl named Aurora (The Legend of 1900's Melanie Thierry) and her keeper, Sister Rebecca (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's Michelle Yeoh) to New York City in six days. Along with half a million dollars, Gorsky will provide Toorop with a new genetic identity, which will enable him to move back to America permanently. That's quite a carrot, and Toorop takes the job. While there's some more to the plot later on, that's the basics, and the rest of the movie is doing the things Vin Diesel has been doing best for the past ten years: scenes where a whole lot of stuff blows up.
You can't go into it with high expectations; Kassovitz' annoyance with Fox was well-publicized, and Fox ended up cutting almost half of Kassovitz' original cut in order to give the movie its less-than-ninety-minute running time. While I'd love to see the full hundred sixty minute cut Kassovitz originally turned in (the DVD clocks in at substantially less, with only eleven minutes of footage restored), I'm not all that sure it would make a great deal of difference; this is big, stylized Hollywood violence, without the intimacy of fist meeting flesh that made La Haine such a shocking film. Things go boom, and people run around shooting each other, and if you like that sort of thing, you'll probably get a kick out of this. It is kind of a disappointment to see Diesel only doing these big action-movie things after starting his career off by proving himself a fantastic actor in Multi-Facial, but like Keanu Reeves after a similar beginning with River's Edge and Permanent Record, that sort of role doesn't seem to be in the cards any more. (Ever think about going back to directing, Vin?) Still, for what it is, it gets the job done. Not in an exceptional or original way, but turn your brain off and you'll have a good time with it. **
Movie Review: Mildly Entertaining Choas
Summary: 2 Stars
Vin Diesel's new sci-fi action "Babylon A. D." follows the story of Toorop, anti-heroic mercenary hired to transport a mysterious girl named Aurora into the near-future America. In the film helmed by French director Mathieu Kassovitz ("The Hate" "The Crimson Rivers" "Gothika"), the futuristic world is in total chaos - like the film itself which is about as chaotic as it gets.
For all the top-notch players including Michelle Yeoh, Gérard Depardieu, Charlotte Rampling, Lambert Wilson and my favorite Mark Strong, with the cinematography of Thierry Arbogast ("The Fifth Element"), "Babylon A. D." is a mess. Visually the film is often interesting and I really like Vin Diesel, but each action set-piece only leaves us puzzled and confused instead of exciting us. Why should they use a train, not a plane? Why a submarine? Everything looks terribly contrived.
I know the director's complaints about the studio's interference. With all respect to Mathieu Kassovitz and everyone involved in this project, however, the film had no chance of becoming whatever he had envisioned. If we could ignore the confusing narrative gaps in the latter half of the story, the badly-edited snowmobile action sequence or the very irritating and poorly-acted character of Aurora who keeps nagging suggests something is wrong with the incoherent film from the very beginning.
"Babylon A. D." is a mildly entertaining action. Surely the visual designs sometimes look borrowed from other better films, but they are not boring. Still I am afraid that the film's production history would be more interesting than the film itself.
Movie Review: Movie with no plot, direction, nor conclusion
Summary: 2 Stars
I should have known not to waste 4 bucks on a rental for a movie that it's own director smashes. I was still willing to give it a shot because I've always enjoyed Vin Diesel's movies, since strays, all the way to Chronicles of Riddick. But this film is so underpar that at the end you feel like you've been cheated on. I wont give away any spoilers, but if you are in the mood to watch a movie without a clearly driven purpose, then this is up your alley. Not only is the movie poorly directed, but I also think this is the worst presence I've ever seen from Diesel.
Not even the lack luster action scenes can make up for a movie with no plot, poor dialogue, and over-the-top circumstances. The flim never picks up from dragging, many of the other actors are vague and have no substance, and worst of all the younger lady playing co-star is painfully annoying.
If you are into Diesel as I am, take my advise and don't watch this movie and save your cash for his up coming fast and furious. I know he has always been into fantasy sci-fi movies, but I think Diesel shines the most in films that can relate closer to reality.
Movie Review: Ummmm...you may ne shaking your head at the end
Summary: 2 Stars
At the conclusion of this movie, I was thinking to myself... what the? I don't know where to start, but some of the camera work early in parts of the movie where terrible; with camera angles changing every two seconds or so, making it extremely difficult to follow the action. The peculiar mannerisms of Aurora (Melanie Thierry) were maddening to the point that you wished Vin Diesel, as Toorop or Michelle Yeoh, as Sister Rebekah would put some tape over her mouth to shut her up. Speaking of Michelle Yeoh. She was mis-cast in this thing of a movie. Terrible job on her part. She may have been added only to spice up the action scenes with her Martial Arts. Other than that, she wasn't very interesting. And Gerard Depardieu's part was useless and laughable. I can't be subjective about a movie that was too fragmented to make any sense. Ugh.