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Amazon.co.uk Review
While not the career shot-in-the-arm that Vin Diesel was probably looking for and certainly needs, Babylon AD does have its merits, and they make it just the kind of fodder waiting to greet a DVD audience.
The plot of Babylon AD sees Diesel heading from Europe to New York, transporting a package that turns out to be more than it first seems. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Diesel’s mercenary character inevitably comes up against the dangers and problems of a world in chaos and disarray. This is a cue for plenty of action, and some solid effects, all of which are easy on the eye and the brain.
The problem with Babylon AD, though, is that the plot doesn’t make a great deal of sense, and the film displays all the hallmarks of one that’s been hacked too far in the editing room. This doesn’t fatally hurt it, but it certainly inflicts a good deal of damage.
As it stands, Babylon AD is a decent, and comparably brisk futuristic thriller, that had the potential to be a lot more than it is. But at worst, it’s still enjoyable enough, and a decent way to spend an easy night in front of the telly. --Jon Foster
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Vin Diesel? Cornelius Toorop?,
By Ironspider "Armchair Adventurer" (Peterborough, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Babylon A.D. (1-Disc Edition) [DVD] [2008] (DVD)
First off, I really like Babylon Babies by Maurice Dantec; it's a complex tale of social engineering and evolution, both racial and individual. Toorop, the hero of the tale, is a philosophical warrior who has seen too many conflicts and not enough resolutions.
Toorop is also around fifty years of age, Vin Diesel isn't - the beginning of the films' divergence from the book! The film tries to boil down the complexities of the book into a more linear action film, but it doesn't work. I suppose Christophe Gans might have made a better director and added some French flair to the proceedings, but it's hard to see any film really doing justice to Dantec's story. So, Babylon AD is a fun action film, but it leaves out all the questions Dantec poses, opting instead for louder gunfights, and replaces Toorop's anguished musings with Mr Diesel's sometimes incomprehensible drawl. Even Michelle Yeoh spends most of her screen time looking slightly bemused, whether because of the script or a feeling she was in the wrong film... The other players in the story fulfil the necessary roles, but there isn't anything new or shiny to raise this above the other sci-fi actioners that unfortunately take the place of decent science fiction films.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly good,
By
This review is from: Babylon A.D. (1-Disc Edition) [DVD] [2008] (DVD)
This Movie is a fantastic Sci-Fi Adventure that takes you from Mongolia through Russia to New York! Finally though a great sci-fi Movie that does not try to over explain itself and end up treating you like an idiot (ahem*matrix*ahem).
Set in a brutal and futuristic world Vin Diesel is perfectly cast as the Mercenary who is hired to deliver a young woman from a Convent in Mongolia to his Contractor in New York with quite a few explosive obstacles in the way! This Movie although has alot of plot holes has some cool special fx and action sequences. This is a must for any Vin fans or if you are just looking for a Movie with a straight forward story and some "edge of your seat" action. 8/10
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as bad as its reputation - if you see the extended version,
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This review is from: Babylon A.D. (2-Disc Special Edition) [DVD] [2008] (DVD)
Infamous as the film that was so bad even its director went public to warn audiences off (albeit his complaints were mainly aimed at the incomprehensible studio cut that is released as a single disc DVD), Babylon A.D. may be a huge step down from the days when Mathieu Kassovitz was making the likes of La Haine or even The Crimson Rivers, but in the director's preferred version released in French theatres and on DVD as the `extended version,' it's an okay silly scifi action film. There's not much in the way of the ideas from Maurice G. Dantec's novel that attracted him to the project in the first place and it's little more than another derivative Children of Men-style chase through a future dystopia with a few added cyberpunk fittings as Vin Diesel's mercenary is hired by an unrecognisable Gerard Depardieu's Russian mobster to deliver Mélanie Thierry's genetically engineered mystery girl from Eastern Europe to New York with a little help from Michelle Yeoh's two-fisted nun and hindrance from Charlotte Rampling's corporate religion and mad scientist Lambert Wilson's followers. Take it seriously and it's a non-starter, but take it as an overpriced bit of Euro comicstrip nonsense with the odd striking scene - a terrorist bombing in a crowded railway station, refugees trying to scrabble aboard a submarine before it submerges beneath the ice - and it's an okay if rather familiar timefiller. The longer 'harder' cut certainly isn't a profound rediscovered masterpiece, but unlike the shorter cinema version that seemed to have been hacked to pieces by a combine harvester, the plot and characters do make a lot more sense and you do get to see Mark Strong with hair.
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