Babylon A. D. (20th Century Fox)
Vin At His Worst
I am a big Vin Diesel fan. I totally enjoyed his Fast and the Furious movies as well as The Pacifier. But for the life of me I couldnt muster much enthusiasm for his latest film Babylon A. D. Having sat through it I dont even know what the title meant, and the rest of the film is a blur. This is Vin Diesel at his worst and he better pray for a fast release of Fast and the Furious 3.
Diesel plays a soldier of fortune named Toorop who is hired to escort a young woman from Russia to America. She has some importance to the world at large but what it is never came clear in my mind. Toorop picks up the girl named Aurora (Melanie Thierry) at some religious cloister. She is chaperoned by a woman named Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh).
The three battle their way across Russia and eventually to New York. There some significant looking things happen leading up to a strange and unfathomable ending. The whys and wherefores of how they got there are never explained.
The movie might have been redeemable in a sense if the action sequences had been better, but they arent. Everything happens rapidly and you get no feel for the dynamics of the fights. When you have an action star of the caliber of Diesel you expect to have some great battles and contests. They arent in this film.
Thierry is quite pretty as the young girl on the move but there is zero chemistry between her and Diesel. Yeoh comes across as a much more human and involved character. She holds your interest throughout the film and makes her role better than it should be, just as she did in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Diesel grunts and mutters his way through the film. He looks right for the role he is playing but he brings nothing extra to it. He has never been the most charismatic actor but he has always been better than this.
The film is rated PG-13 for profanity and violence.
It is amazing that movies such as this one get made. They have no sustainable plot, little entertainment value from the actors performances, and a tendency to leave the audience dazed and confused. So who thought people would spend their hard earned money for this
I scored Babylon A. D. a futuristic 3 out of 10.
