The Nevada Sagebrush

Adaptation of apocalyptic novel feels boring and unoriginal

Ever since Steven Spielberg plucked him from the adverse real life environment of being a bouncer in a club to the real Hollywood life of being a soldier who gets killed by a sniper in “Saving Private Ryan,”Vin Diesel has been pushed down our throats as being a highly touted action star.

While he did have a string of successful films (“XXX,”"The Fast and the Furious,”) and, yes, even a few good ones (“Pitch Black”and “Chronicles of Riddick”are two pretty fine-tuned films for being in the action genre), Diesel has recently found his career taking a dive.  Even though his 2005 kids movie “The Pacifier”made $113 million and proved that Diesel could have a successful film of this type, he has not come out with anything of note and has faded into obscurity.  However, the Vin-man seems determined to make a comeback.

“Babylon A.D.”marks the beginning of this attempted comeback.   Based on the novel ‘Babylon Babies’ by Maurice G. Dantec, “Babylon A.D.”is an almost straight combination of “The Terminator”and “Children of Men.”  It tells the story of retired mercenary Toorop, who has been lured back to work in order to transport a young girl with special powers named Aurora (Melanie Thierry) from Russia to America.

He is soon joined by her guardian, Sister Rebeka, and together the trio goes through some admittedly cool action scenes, including a stand-out snowmobile chase, while keeping Aurora away from the evil High Priestess (Rampling).

However, as Toorop learns more and more about Aurora and her abilities, he finds himself at a moral standstill:  Should he go ahead and hand over the girl for the fee he is offered, knowing the lives he could destroy if he does?

The casting of this film is so uninspired that you wonder what the filmmakers were thinking watching dailies and leaving them in.

Thierry especially, playing the girl Diesel protects, comes off as such a spoiled brat that you start to wish the High Priestess would just get her hands on her mouth and shut it up.  And Yeoh, (“Fearless”) is also very bland, giving lines that are supposed to inspire and letting them run across the lines of her mouth without it never changing expression.        You know it is going to be a bad day at the movies when even the film’s director comes out in the press and puts down his own creation, as Mathieu Kassovitz (“Gothika”) has done lately.

As for Diesel, despite his successful first string of films, his career is taking a major plunge. Instead of being another Arnold Schwarzenegger, Diesel is proving to be another Van Damme:  an actor who starts out on fire in the genre, but fades into the straight-to-DVD market.

‘Babylon A.D.’
Release Date: Nov. 21
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz
Starring: Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, and Melanie Thierry
Genre: Action, Adventure
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action and some sexuality
Grade: D-

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