In 2008 Twentieth Century Fox released Mathieu Kassovitz’s Babylon A.D., a film all about realising that there’s more to things than what meets the eye.
It tells a tale of a ruthless mercenary named Toorop (Vin Diesel) who has been charged with smuggling a young girl (Melanie Thierry) into New York City from the post-apocalyptic wastelands of Eastern Europe. But Toorop will be hunted at every turn and will discover a secret that may have the power to bring the world to its knees.
This a story about a man’s desire to survive and also his realisation that his survival may also rely on who, if anyone, he trusts. But above all it’s a fast-paced action movie with amazing special effects.
That’s not to say that I liked everything about this film. There were aspects that just were…well, silly really. For instance, whenever someone actually took the time in killing someone else (as in no chases where guns were going of left, right and centre, but actually took their time in aiming and firing) they looked more like they shoved the gun into their victim more than shoot it. It looked quite ridiculous. And then there was the ending…it lacked progression and seemed rushed. And the film could have easily allowed room for an expansion as it’s not exactly a very long film.
It also gave off a rather gangster feel overall, which stops it being quite a brilliant film in my eyes.
But enough with the bad…let’s look at the good. Like I said before this film is filled with brilliant special effects and cool futuristic ideas such as the helicopter carrying Toorop in a car to his destination (which was in Mongolia), the paper map with touch screen functions (not sure if you would call this touch-paper), the chase between the planes and the protagonists on their snow bikes…there were some amazing stunts performed, the gun fight towards the end when Toorop ‘dies’ (lots of explosions and stunts here too), the chess piece that moves by itself after you have made a move yourself and finally Gorsky’s (Gérard Depardieu) death, as just before it happens he claims ‘You will need a nuke to kill me’, which is exactly what happens seconds later. Karma is a bitch.
And my one and only favourite quote from the film, which is the one that sets the whole movie up for me at the beginning is:
‘I learnt something that day. Too bad it was the day I died.’ – Toorop
It sounds like a spoiler, but actually it’s from the very first scene in the movie and it all makes sense once you watch the rest of the film.
Though this film is not necessarily my cup of tea, it was still very watchable and enjoyable.
So a 7.3 out 10 from me.
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Reviewer's Digest 