Babylon A.D. (2008)

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz

Starring: Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Melanie Thierry

Veteran-turned-mercenary Toorop takes the high-risk job of escorting a woman from Russia to America. Little does he know that she is host to an organism that a cult wants to harvest in order to produce a genetically modified Messiah.

‘Babylon A.D.’ is not an easy film to get into. This is a strangely constructed movie that will leave you confused for most of the film.

Vin Diesel stars as Toorop, who is hired by Gorsky (Gerard Depardieu) to take a mysterious girl to the United States within six days. Along for the ride is Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh). The mission is not as simple as it sounded, though, as Toorop soon realizes something weird about the girl, Aurora, with people dying to get their hands on her.

The film has a good production design, with plenty of action and adventure, and a good score. Toorop is too cold a character for my liking and Diesel is type-cast (again) to portray such a character. He hardly ever smiles…

While the premise might be confusing, at least the action compensates for that. The climax, especially, was very well done. ‘Babylon A.D.’ is not your mainstream action movie, and will not satisfy every action movie buff’s palate. This is a post-apocalyptic fantasy mystery action adventure thriller, and somewhere in their we still need to add ‘weird’. Regardless, I enjoyed the movie for the action and mystery element, and being full of surprises.

‘Babylon A.D’ only earned $72.1 million on a $70 million budget.

Would I watch it again? Yes.