Babylon A.D.

It’s the future, the world is dark, barbaric and strangely similar. The high-rises of New York city are littered with ads, the place looks like a Christmas tree full of lights. Within homes the rooms are separated by fully mobile walls reducing the need for doors of any kind. Televisions the span of walls are a must, they cannot be turned off simply changed… The Religious cults are in power and the toying of human life is a mere hobby for any educated Physician worth his salt.

Cut this scene and replace the scenario with a snowy camp. The RZA is crooning over a blood pumping track as we see a camouflaged and hooded character emerge from amongst some soldiers. His walk and gait is one of confidence and he doesn’t slow as he barely speaks Russian to the market vendors and fellow gunmen that he walks by. The place looks like a camp in the midst of a war. Our man purchases an animal from a vendor and trudges up the stairs of a building that looked like it had been bombed a few times too many. Vin Diesel removes the cloak and you can see he is no soldier, he is a hardened mercenary. Tearing the skin from the animal and frying the fresh meat with a touch of onions and seasoning, our merc sits down to his dinner with a glass of red wine. This is the beginning of Babylon A.D… the door busts open and the action begins…

What I am most pleased with is the return of solid Sci-Fi action in Babylon A.D. Thoorop (Vin Diesel) is a dangerous mercenary who is hired by a gangster to deliver to New York City a young woman by the name of Aurora (Mélanie Thierry). Along with Aurora’s guardian: Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh), the trio make a hard trip into the United States and are faced with a stampeding crowd, shrapnel, bullets and just about every sort of ballistics needed to stop a Mercenary from delivering his goods. What Thoorop soon learns is that Aurora is something special and his delivery lands him in the middle of a war for ownership of the girl between two desperate organizations.

Babylon A.D. sets the mood for this post-apocalyptic world perfectly. Russia is shown as a cold unfriendly warzone and the United States is made to look like a technological prison and the bastion of sin. The super innocent Aurora screams in terror as Thoorop is made to shoot people, choke guys out and snap a neck or two. Things get so bad that even the peaceful Sister Rebeka is forced into flexing her Kung Fu muscles against the fanatics.

The special effects were good and the cinematography compelling but again I find this another good movie with crappy camera work on the fighting scenes. The deadly Michelle Yeoh who has shown time and time again that her fighting skills are second to none is shown in action through super panned in shots and late flashes of her punches that just don’t seem to register well when shot this way. In a sense it was annoying, Vin Diesel has a scene where he fights a guy in a cage and the most I could make out was a facial expression here and there amongst the blur of clothing and close-ups. I complained about this type of shooting in The Messenger, The Bourne Identity and a few other movies. Curse the camera man for ruining the action shots!

As much as I loved this movie, my biggest gripe is with the story. Something major was cut and I could feel it as soon as the credits started rolling. No explanation is given of Aurora’s situation and the relationship amongst the trio seemed very accelerated at one point in the movie. I think back on The Abyss which had undergone an awful editing job for the Box Office and how much better the movie was once the Director’s Cut was revealed… it is on par with this. So I will give Babylon A.D. top marks for being a very good movie, albeit spliced, diced and confusing based on the cutting board. Though it be no Blade Runner or Road Warrior, it holds its own merit as a good Sci-Fi film and it feels good to have big badass Vin Diesel doing the Sci-Fi thing again.

Mark my words, the Blu-Ray/DvD will be a kick ass masterpiece worthy of any Science Fiction junkie’s collection.

Written by Greg Dragon – who has written 365 reviews on Spicy Movie Dogs.

Cinephile and opinion writer, Greg Dragon has been a fan of movies since the 80's when Kung Fu theater was all the rage and Roger Moore was James Bond. As an opinion writer that has reviewed Box Office releases on a number of prominent websites, Greg is the founder and lead critic of Spicy Movie Dogs.