Of all the possible genres that can be used to drive a movie the action flicks would seem one of the easiest roads to success. There is really not much of a need for a coherent plot and many in the audience are willing to put up with wooden acting but the large, burly men that tend to dominate the main roles. This makes it particularly sad for the long time movie buff when a film that should have been a hit fails to reach anything near that admirable goal. A person goes into watching an action flick with little expectations other than a thrill ride that will provide a welcomed distraction from reality for a couple of hours. This came to mind while watching the Sci-Fi action flick ‘Babylon A.D.’. Needless to say it had all the elements that should have made for at least a passable movie but never managed to let them gel properly. There is a stronger than usual premise and a leading man who has experience in this type of flick but nothing came together properly. There is action present here but little to make you care about it. No opportunity to become emotionally invested in the characters is achieved although to be honest they did try. Apparently this is a case where a set of circumstances seem to conspire against the production. They were plagued with bad weather and other difficulties during shooting which is a chance any film maker has to be readily to overcome. It was shot with a budget of some $60 million which may seem like a lot of money but stacked up against the budgets for the major studio big blockbusters this would barely cover the cost of a couple of stars. Apparently the insurance company had to step in when the shoot went way over budget and was greatly behind its shooting schedule. The critically reaction was overall negative and even trying to be liberal and excepting anyone watching would not honestly be able to find much here. This was echoed with the lackluster box office which fell short of making a profit. Its saving grace may be for people to play the home edition version of ‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’ while viewing the flick. It is now out on both DVD and Blu-ray. It could have been a contender but unfortunately that was beyond the grasp of the movie.

The source novel, ‘Babylon’s Babies’ was written by French author, Maurice G. Dantec. He specializes in the relatively new genre of cyberpunk. Typically this is a dark view of the not too distant future which fits in perfectly with some traditional science fiction themes. Unlike the earlier representations of this look ahead cyberpunk is much darker and more pessimistic by nature. Altering the story to be suitable for filming fell to Eric Besnard. Previously he has penned several French films that range from action to drama. The actual script is credited to two men; Mathieu Kassovitz and Joseph Simas. Kassovitz also has experience in several aspects of film making mostly in France including production, writing, direction and acting. This is the first feature length screenplay for Simas who had one short prior to this script. Perhaps there were too many hands in the plot so that initially good ideas were lost in the shuffle. The fundamental story holds true to the cyberpunk motifs. It has the world caught in a bleak and dismal situation. Cities are overcrowded, New York City reportedly has over 30 million people, and an increasing number of wild animals have become extinct. War and terrorism has oppressed the population of most countries. They also have the lone anti-hero, Toorop underplayed by Vin Diesel. He has never been known as an expressive actor but here it virtually sleepwalks through the film. Diesel has worked in dystopia themed science fiction before with the interesting ‘Pitch Black’ and its less than successful follow up flick ‘The Chronicles of Riddick’. It was once hailed as the new big thing in action movies but his career seems to have gone off that track at this point.

Directing this film was one of its screenwriters, Mathieu Kassovitz. He did direct the lackluster ‘Gothika’ a few years back but even with that film there was evidence of talent in this man. He just needs the right vehicle to express himself. That brings up one of the major factors in why this film failed. According to interviews and online reports Kassovitz was not given free reign to make this movie. There was allegedly a lot of input from the backing studio and Kassovitz was not able to shoot the scenes the way envisioned them. I can understand the point of view of the studio that this is a financial endeavor for them; the movie is the product that they sell. This is often in opposition to the artistic viewpoint of the film maker. For him his movies are his art and an extension of himself. It comes down to a matter of trust. If the studio is willing to put up millions of dollars to make a film they should trust the artistic vision of the director. This offsets the fact that the director is working for the studio and has to yield to some of the corporate and fiscal demands. When the two vantage points are placed in direct contention the results are never good as made evident here. I certainly look forward to the next project from this man and just hope that he will be given a chance to do things his way. In this case the result was a film that felt incomplete and choppy. Scenes begin a theme that had promise only to become distracted or abandoned altogether. The narrative of the movie was broken several times allowing the audience to become disinterested in the proceedings. The story had a strong theme of the dark end result of where the world is today. The ecology smashed unemployment rampant and the world politically and violently fragmented. This is more than the typical action flick provides and it would have been something to see this brought to fruition.

Toorop (Diesel) works as a mercenary taking on the jobs that are too risky for others in his profession. He is approached by a Russian mob boss, Gorsky (Gérard Depardieu) with an job opportunity. He wants Toorop to transport a young woman, Aurora (Mélanie Thierry) to America. This entails bringing her guardian, Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh) along. The nun is highly protective of her charge and seems weary of Toorop getting too close to her. The trek begins at the Noelite Convent deep in Russia and requires them to transverse some of the most hostile territory imaginable. The country has been split into little fiefdoms under the control of local gang oriented war lords. In short order Toorop notices something very strange about Aurora. She seems able to sense danger before it happens and is able to perform complicated tasks that she never encountered before. Once the trio get to New York they hear that the convent was bombed; someone is very proactive about killing Aurora and it is up to Toorop to keep her safe.

Again, this is more than the potential for a great story. It is a shame that extraneous factors stepped in to derail the movie. Fox has provided an excellent home theater release especially with the Blu-ray version. It is brilliant with the 1080p video and an extremely dynamic DTS HD sound track.