Babylon A.D (2008)
Directed by Matthieu Kassovitz
Written by Mathieu Kassovitz, Eric Bresnard
Starring Vin Diesel, Melanie Thierry, Michelle Yeoh
Release Date August 29th, 2008
Published August 28th, 2008
Babylon A.D comes off far worse than it really is. That is likely because director Matthieu Kassovitz has trashed the movie in the media leaving the perception of one exceptionally bad movie. Babylon A.D is not a good movie, but with some terrific direction in the first two acts and a perfectly cast Vin Diesel, the film is not nearly as bad as it should be. In fact, if not for a third act that flies completely off the rails we could be talking about one terrific sci fi action epic.
In Babylon A.D Vin Diesel is cast as a mercenary known as Turog. Forced to live in the wilds of Russia because the American government considers him a terrorist, Turog longs to find a way home to New York. The opportunity to go home arises when a wealthy terrorist offers Turog $500,000 dollars and a way to get into the country undetected if Turog will take a package to New York City.
The package happens to be a 19 year old girl named Aurora (Melanie Thierry) whose strange abilities, including psychic visions, lead Turog to wonder if he has been set up. Aurora is accompanied by Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh), her protector and surrogate mother, having raised her on a convent in a Russian hillside. Is Aurora a real psychic or is she exhibiting the characteristics of a girl gone mad from disease, a carrier of a virus meant to be spread in the United States should Turog succeed in getting her there?
That last question is inferred by me and only vaguely addressed by director Matthieu Kassovitz. It's possible that a fuller explanation of the threat posed to or by Aurora was left on the cutting room floor. According to the director, the studio, Fox, took him out of the editing of the film and cut deeply to get Babylon A.D an PG-13 rating and a more box office friendly runtime of just over 90 minutes.
Watching the film seems to back up Kassovitz's claims. The final third of Babylon A.D is so thoroughly botched and so deeply cut that little of what is shown makes a lick of sense. As the movie attempts to untangle a thicket of a plot involving Aurora's parents and a new major religion on the rise, we are rushed to a forced, nonsensical conclusion that takes an hours worth of good work and reduces it to a whimpering, simpering, confounding end.
Babylon A.D is two thirds of a compelling, action packed, sci fi thrill ride and one third incomprehensible mess. It is clear that director Matthieu Kassovitz has a vision for this story, a grand idea to tie it all together but it never really arrives. What is left is some top notch action and effects scenes and a plot that spins out of comprehension in the last half hour before ending with a complete thud.
Vin Diesel is perfectly cast in Babylon A.D as a mercenary of the future. With that growling voice and impressive physicality, Diesel is exactly the man you want protecting you on a journey through the wastelands of outer Russia and the mean streets of New York City. If you buy the dangerous future world that Matthieu Kassovitz creates for Babylon A.D you will have no trouble accepting Diesel as that world's possible savior.
Babylon A.D had a chance to be something better than it is. It could have been more than a mere action shoot'em up with a future setting. There was, at some point, a real idea behind it. That idea was snuffed by the marketing concerns of a meddling studio, and what is left is a mess of incomprehensible plot tangles and an ending more unsatisfying than we've seen in a while. It's strange to have liked a movie as much as I liked Babylon A.D and not recommend it. But, with the final third of the film a complete disaster there is simply no way for me to justify recommending Babylon A.D.
