1 vote, average: 4.00 out of 51 vote, average: 4.00 out of 51 vote, average: 4.00 out of 51 vote, average: 4.00 out of 51 vote, average: 4.00 out of 5 (1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5, rated)
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Review of Reviews: Critics find Babylon A.D. incomprehensible

Vin Diesel in his big screen comeback. But the studio refused to show this film to critics, afraid that bad press word-of-mouth would keep attendance and ticket sales down.

The Good

  • Great well-known and loved cast.

The Bad

  • The movie's director has trashed the film, saying the studio hacked the heart out of it.
  • Disjointed characters and plot.

Full Review

OPENS: August 29, 2008
Rating: PG-13 (Intense violence, Language)
Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopia
Starring: Vin Diesel, Gerard Depardieu

"Veteran-turned-mercenary Thoorop 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," or so say the studio teasers.

"Ugh," or so say the critics - well those who saw it. The studio refused to have advance screenings for film critics - usually a sign a film is a dud.

The movie's director, Mathieu Kassovitz agrees. as reported by the Reelz Channel:

 "I'm very unhappy with the film," Kassovitz ranted to AMC. "I never had a chance to do one scene the way it was written or the way I wanted it to be. The script wasn't respected. Bad producers, bad partners, it was a terrible experience."

Kassovitz, who described parts of the movie as "like a bad episode of 24," places the blame squarely on the shoulder of studio backer 20th Century Fox. Fox, ironically, also happens to produce TV's 24.

Look on the bright side, sci-fi fans: Babylon A.D. may not be the second coming of Blade Runner, but it should provide for the best DVD director's commentary ever.

 Mainstream film critics agree.

WATCH THE TRAILER

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Rating (out of 10)

FilmCritics.com

"More inert than argon gas and given over to obvious directorial hissy fits, Babylon A.D. is like a bad dream a cyberpunk once had" - Bill Gibron

2

IGN

"French director Kassiovitz himself has decried the theatrical cut of Babylon A.D., and watching the film it's easy to understand why: whole chunks of plot, much less their explanation, have clearly been excised." - Todd Gilchrist

2

Variety

"Fans of Pitch Black, hoping Diesel would reprise the stone-faced Richard Riddick role here will be disappointed." - Jordan Mintzer

3

Total

2.33

Popularity: 15% [?]

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About the Author

David Speakman

David Speakman - known in fannish circles as Davodd - is recovering from almost 20 years as a professional writer and journalist in mainstream print and broadcasting. He recently "retired" from journalism, citing that too many mega-mergers caused news focus to shift from serving the public interest to serving up eyeballs to advertisers. Currently he works full time as a paralegal while attending night law school. A member of N3F on and off since 1984, David's fannish activities in recent days have been curtailed due to time and budget constraints of being a law school student; although he does manage to squeeze in episodes of Battlestar Galactica, issues of Weird Tales magazine and an odd superhero movie "now and then."

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