'Babylon AD' Review

Babylon A.D. paints a somewhat depressing picture of the not so distant future, where terrorism has destroyed Russia and religious sects fight to gain global supremacy. Mercenary killer Hugo Thoorop (Vin Diesel) is hired to deliver a young priestess Aurura (Melanie Theiry) and her guardian (Michelle Yeoh) to New York, which is complicated by the fact that certain sectors want them dead and that Thoorop is a wanted terrorist in America. What he doesn’t know is that she is a genetically modified cyborg that has been created in order to breed a man-made-messiah that will allow the Neolite’s to become the world’s dominate religion.
For those familiar with Vin Diesel’s films he plays pretty much the same character here as in most of his other films; a role that he does perform very well, despite his lack of versatility. However this even for fans of Diesel this may not be enough as the film has very few other redeeming qualities.
The plot at times seems incoherent. This could be due to the fact that according to director Mathieu Kassovitz, who has distanced himself from this film, fox studios re-edited almost 30 minutes of the film out so that it no longer bears any resemblance to the script or the film he made. Either way, the fact is that there is very little story here and almost no character development. The plot is paper thin and the motives behind the characters actions are rarely properly revealed.
The film it’s a peak towards the latter stages. Suspense builds when Thoorop discovers the Neolites plan to kill Aurora, which leads to a suspenseful action sequence as they exit the hotel. However this is just about the only highlight of the film and the film’s only real quality action sequence.
Unfortunately the negatives far outweigh the positives here. Maybe when/if the director’s cut is released the film will be improved. However based on this version it’s hard to imagine. But we can only wait and see.

4.5/10