Review of Babylon A.D. (2008) by Ola G — 12 Oct 2009

A few decades ahead in time, a mercenary named Toorop (Vin Diesel) accepts a contract from a Russian mobster, Gorsky (Gerard Depardieu), who instructs him to bring a young woman only known as Aurora (Melanie Thierry) to New York. In order to reach his goal, Gorsky gave Toorop a variety of weapons as well as a UN passport that has to be injected under the skin of the neck. Toorop, along with the girl and her guardian nun Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh), will have to travel from the Noelite Convent across Russia to reach America and NY. On their journey they have to face all sorts of trouble...

I reckon "Babylon A.D." is mostly known for a troubled production and that the director Mathieu Kassovitz slammed the movie and 20th Century Fox for ruining his vision of the film. I am not sure what it would have looked like in Kassovitz original version, but what we get is a pretty poor action sci-fi b-movie that borrows bits and pieces from movies such as "Blade Runner", "The Fifth Element" and "Minority Report". And the film is edited in a quite crappy manner. Scenes seem to hang in the air and they never come down to earth again. Vin Diesel is... well Vin Diesel and the rest looks lost, especially Gerard Depardieu (and he is dubbed!). Maybe this could have become a bit more interesting with someone else in the lead and with a movie company that did not interfere with the production. But, I am not sure. Plus the ending is well... wtf? In my point of view at least. Nah... this is a strike!!