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Australia Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Appaloosa Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Babylon A.D.
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, language and some sexuality
Starring Vin Diesel, Mélanie Thierry, Michelle Yeoh, Lambert Wilson, Mark Strong, Jérôme Le Banner, Charlotte Rampling, and Joel Kirby
It is the not-too-distant future, a hardened mercenary known only as Toorop lives by a simple survivor's code: kill...or be killed. His latest assignment has him smuggling a young woman named Aurora from a convent in Kazakhstan to New York City. Toorop, his new young charge Aurora and Aurora's guardian Sister Rebeka embark on a 6,000 mile journey. Facing obstacles at every turn, Toorop, the killer for hire, is tested like never before, in ways he could never have imagined - as he comes to understand that he is the custodian of the only hope for the future of mankind. For the first time in his life, Toorop has to make a choice: to make a difference or walk away and save himself. Too bad it came on the day he died. (20th Century Fox)
| GENRE(S): | Action | Adventure | Sci-fi | Suspense/Thriller |
| WRITTEN BY: |
Maurice G. Dantec (novel)
Eric Besnard Mathieu Kassovitz Joseph Simas |
| DIRECTED BY: | Mathieu Kassovitz |
| RELEASE DATE: | Theatrical: August 29, 2008 |
| RUNNING TIME: | 90 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: | USA | France |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The average user rating for this movie is 4.5 (out of 10) based on 27 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jake gave it a9:
All I can say to all the negative reviews of this movie is this: There are most certainly worse movies in all aspects. While some events in the film were a bit confusing, the plot did make you think, and also left you to draw some conclusions for yourself rather than spelling everything out for you, which I find very refreshing. Additionally, I found the action to be, at worst, different, and at best, pretty cool.
Daniel D. gave it a4:
Confusing, ending without proper explanation, are words i would use to describe this movie. I'm sure if i was to read the book from which it came, it would of made more sense. I feel that their budget was low or in production ran out of money.
Ignacio T. gave it an8:
Its an intristing movie, but they cut a lot of scenes so thats because people doesnt like it
Joe S. gave it a5:
Certainly not a masterpiece, but not nearly as bad as the critics made it out to be and I see no reason for it to have been disowned by its director. This movie is your pretty typical sci-fi shoot 'em up, blow 'em up, beat 'em up just with a few moments of "Huh?" thrown in every now and then. I've definitely seen worse. I see no real reason why this movie draws comparison to "Children of Men." Aside from the fact that the plot is vaguely similar, that's about where the similarities end. Not worth seeing for $12, but you wouldn't be regretting your choice if you rented it from Netflix.
Borge T. gave it an8:
Babylon A.D. is probably the only legitimate science fiction fare since Aronofsky's 'The Fountain'. As an adaptation of Maurice Dantec's 'Babylon Bablies' it's probably in the mode of epic Langian fare, which offsets the literary ejaculativeness of Dantec. These sets are the best encapsulation of debatables regarding the use of videogame stages in film design. Dantec's a powerful prose presence in world science fiction, and the fantasy aspects of the film's sets emphasizes a post-cyberpunk Lecarre quality. Obviously, the writer's talents are unheralded, while the purity of science fiction as a future discourse is ignored. Science fiction in cinema represents cinema's purity. The story is more comparable to an espionage genre than classic films(bladerunner, minority report, matrix).
Andrew B. gave it a1:
Babylon A.D. is a bad serious movie. In the respects of acting, writing, plot, and camera use Babylon A.D. fails horribly. The acting is poor with little or no emotion shown by any of the main actors which fails to draw the audience into the writing. The dialogue, characterization, and cause-effect actions are all poorly done. The dialogue sounds like something out of a bad fanfiction with come-back lines that offer no deep meaning and just try to sound cool but end up being laughably bad. The plot seems to develop on-the-go of the movie with scenes offering little continuity logic. The narration by Vin Diesel just seems to have a bunch of scenes and lines to make him seem like a badass who is always right rather than the fool that he really seems to be. The film is packed with action-scenes with shaky camera perspectives that make the scene difficult to understand what’s happening. The action scenes are clichéd and overdone with no originality. The ski-mobile running into the fighter drone is an obvious rip-off of Die Hard 4 with the helicopter and car. Vin Diesel assigns the task of taking the wheel while he’s driving so he can shoot some bad guys nonchalantly as if he weren’t underfire or tense during a high-speed car-chase and gunfight. The next ‘Epic movie’ or ‘disaster movie’ is sure to rip this movie to shreds in a hilarious fashion. -A.R. Bottoms.
John D. gave it a4:
This lackluster movie fell far short of its attempt to create an action packed futuristic film. Vin Diesel’s previous notably powerful screen presence is undermined by the poorly constructed dialog, and supporting actors; although Vin Diesel’s stereotypic tough guy persona is kept intact, his reputation for well crafted action scenes is not. Mostly vague, complicated, and unsatisfactory the storyline lacked fluidity and remained ill-defined throughout the entire movie, and unlike a good thriller or mystery movie the revelation in the ending left the audience with the feeling of emptiness and puzzled. Most of the audience purchased a relatively expensive ticket with the hope that this movie would excite the senses, and fascinate the mind; yet, the movie’s attempt to be three different movies at once only twisted the very little logic that is included. The social-political statement which attempted to criticize the extent to which some organized religious groups will go to, as well as the tribulations that human modification and cloning can have on humanity is shadowed by the unformulated mixture of explosions and dialog. Some movie is capable of limiting the amount of information given to the audience, while still allowing enough understanding of its content; however, this is not one of those cases. In fact, partly because I am a big fan of Vin Diesel, I attempted to dissuade myself from a negative feeling throughout the movie but I cannot remember a point during the movie when if felt involved and captured by the movie. Since Vin Diesel hasn’t appeared in a movie lately I had high hopes for Babylon A.D., and I conclude this review with a plead to such a talented actor that a movie founded on action does not guaranty its popularity, rather its content must be substantial in order to the hype surrounding it. John DeNigris.
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