The futuristic sci-fi drama Babylon A.D. was a total flop in theatres. It was besieged by bad buzz (some of it from the film’s own director) and received horrible reviews, but I think it’s underrated. It was reported that director Mathieu Kossivitz’s original version was cut by 70 minutes to get down to a theatrical runtime of 93 minutes. The result was said to be incoherent and a total mess. The DVD version runs around 10 minutes longer and was fairly cohesive and never boring. The production values are top-notch and visually the film is often stunning.
Babylon A.D takes place in the future and stars Vin Diesel (brooding and growling, but mostly on auto-pilot) as a mercenary named Toorop who must deliver a mysterious woman named Aurora to New York City alive and unharmed. Aurora is accompanied by the excellent action actress Michelle Yeoh and the duo along with Diesel encounter all kinds of danger and peril on their journey. Later in the film, we find out that a deadly religious order led by the wonderful french acting legend Charlotte Rampling (hamming it up beautifully) also want to get their hands on Aurora. The fight scenes are intense and cool and the story is initially quite intriguing but the film is marred by a weak ending that never fully conveys the mysteries the film raises early on. The original version of the film is the version that should be released on DVD at some point, the film is probably much stronger in that version than what is shown here.
Babylon A.D has a very good picture and the audio sounds terrific. A handful of extras (which include some decent behind the scene featurettes) are also included, but there’s no commentary and there’s no hint of the controversy that followed the film around during its weak theatrical run.
Babylon A.D is something of an ambitious failure, but it’s never dull. It’s certainly worth seeing for fans of futuristic action films and even though its quite derivative of films like Blade Runner (name one futuristic science fiction film that isn’t), The Fifth Element, and even has shades of Children of Men, it is always entertaining. Babylon A.D is something of a guilty pleasure, and that is the way it will stay, until we get a true director’s cut, which could be quite special.
DVD Grade: B
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