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Babylon A.D.
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4.1 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 70 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 70
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 70
  3. Negative: 30 out of 70

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  1. ZarghevI
    May 3, 2009
    8
    I found that it's a pleasant science-fiction movie. Probably, it's cultural. I watched "Southland Tales" and "Babylon A.D." back to back - I fail to understand how "Southland Tales" could even remotely have better ratings, but for some reason it has. Every flaw you can find in Babylon, is about ten times worse in "Southland Tales". I found that interesting.
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  2. Jake
    Oct 19, 2008
    9
    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.… Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  3. zacks
    Jan 7, 2009
    9
    I highly enjoyed this movie after watching it last night i really cant get it out of my mind i want to go watch it again. Only grip i have is the ending could of been a little better but this is one of the better movies to come out recently.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  4. HugeVinVinD.Fan
    Sep 2, 2008
    6
    I love Vin, but this one made no sense! The movie leaves you with more unanswered questions.. like is there a book? Vin is the eye candy that's the only reason to watch, there are some interesting technologies, but poorly developed story lines leave you with questions... unfortunately, disappointing. Will be waiting for the dvd, hopefully there are some extended scenes, that explain something!… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  5. BelindaT.
    Sep 2, 2008
    4
    This was no worse than your usual futuristic sci-fi claptrap that we're fed these days. The critics made it sound worse than Gigli! Vin's lucky I fell soooo in love with him in Saving Private Ryan. He;s sorely testing his fans' patience. The only thing (well, not only) that would have helped is more exposition and an actual intimate relationship with Aurora. Thank goodness she wasn't your typical vapid, whiny sci-fi disposa- chick. Cross Blade Runner with The Children of Men and add a dollop of The Fifth Element and you've got this movie. Which just goes to show how difficult it is to make fresh sci-fi. Catch the matinee, then you won't be so angry.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  6. DanaM.
    Aug 30, 2008
    4
    If you're going to a Vin Diesel movie you have to expect that your not going to see Oscar material. But this movie was not well written and was very fragmented with unconnected segments. Not sure why the writers and directors vision of futuristic Russia is of total chaos. What can I say. It was entertaining in a liimited sense but frustrating in that it was so poorly written. Worth renting but not worth the ten bucks to see it on the big screen.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  7. JayH.
    Jan 2, 2009
    5
    Cold and meandering, decently acted but the story just isn't always involving. It lacks excitement, the action scenes aren't very effective. It is visually good though, with some fine cinematography.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  8. JasonDeatherage
    Feb 9, 2009
    1
    I would have to say that this is by far the worst movie that I saw in 2008. Everything about the movie was bad. The acting was poor, the story was bad, and the directing and storytelling was terrible. After I saw the trailer it looked like it had potential to be a decent film. Boy was I wrong. The beginning seemed to start out interesting. Then the movie took a quick turn down boring lane. One of the worst things about the film is that you are wondering the entire time what is with the girl. I even suffered through the whole film just so I could find out. Only to be dissapointed by an ending that never really explained anything. So not only is it boring but it is confusing and never really ends. Just when it seems like things may get interesting and you may find out what is going on, it ends and your left asking yourself what just happened. I noticed that when this film first came out in the video store it was all rented out and seemed to be a popular movie. I feel sorry for all of those innocent people who had subject themselves to this garbage.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  9. BADNAD
    Mar 1, 2009
    1
    The movie was so timing wasting, I cant believe they chose such a great actor like Van Diesel for a pathetic role. Movie finished so quickly, it seemed like the director was in a hurry to make a second part!!!
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  10. ChadS.
    Aug 30, 2008
    6
    There's more than one way to skin a cat, except when you skin a cat for the expressed intention of processing the cat as meat, which in that case, there is actually only one way to skin a cat: with a sharp knife. Nobody knocks anymore in post-apocalyptical Eastern Europe, knocking is for p******. Toorop(Vin Diesel) never finishes his cat and glass of red wine; the home invasion took care of that. "Babylon A.D." asks the question, "Guess who's coming to dinner?" "Children of Men", that's who. Two nuns accompany the mercenary to America, non-Judeo Christian nuns, who could topple the dominant religion should Aurora's secret package fall in the hands of the High Preistess(Charlotte Rampling). "Babylon A.D.", intentional or not, endorses the ruiling theology by using film and its bane, product placement, as an analogy. Product placement, to some, is an affront to cinema, whose true believers attest to the celluloidal image as having a religiosity, albeit a secularized one. The filmmaker not-so-subtly expresses his disdain for the Coca-Cola brand name plastered on an airliner, by having his star walk past two dead polar bears(remember the commercial in which the white Arctic mammals stare at the aurora borealis?). Both product placement and Aurora(Melanie Thierry) have an intertextuality that threatens each respective belief systems. Aurora's condition blasphemizes the Old Testament, which is why she has to go out the same ways as the bears.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  11. BorgeT.
    Sep 15, 2008
    8
    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).… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  12. JohnD.
    Sep 9, 2008
    4
    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.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  13. RobertTT
    Jan 11, 2009
    5
    The story is just too difficult to follow to be enjoyable. The action sequences, are OK, but certainly not good, and there are many better movies with just as much action and a plot that is at least understandable. The aesthetic of the film is quite good actually, but its not enough to make the film worth watching.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  14. EmmanuelStalling
    Oct 6, 2009
    0
    After watching this film I looked up the director to make a note to stay away from his movies. It was that bad. When you see Vin Diesel in the credits, you don't expect Dances With Wolves. but you do expect good mindless action (e.g. XXX). The action in this so-called action movie was mindless, without the good. Each fight scene seemed to be over before it started, down the the 9;final' confrontation that saw Toorop defeat two cars by throwing a grenade into a window. Seriously, that was the final fight scene. Anticlimactic much? And no matter how much Kassovitz makes excuses, he adapted the script. which is the worst part of the movie. At one point, the doctor actually said to Diesel's character "You are her only hope.", an example of a line that was overused by the early 90's.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  15. RobbieB
    Feb 2, 2009
    4
    Poor Vin, he works up this film for all it's worth. But it's not nothing to watch. It wasn't bad, not good either. Vin Diesel was good, Michelle was also. But it was bland in a way that I felt the movie was running a bit long, and we've seen all the stunts before. The effects weren't to bad, neither were the preformances. But it's still nothing to waste money on...... Just wait for it to come on HBO or Starz! Or, if all else fails, wait for the price to go down and pay $4 for it.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  16. janed
    Mar 18, 2009
    1
    This was appalling. I saw it on dvd so maybe some scenes were removed, and also we had to watch it on my brothers computer where you can't turn the subtitles off. However. The future always looks either poor or rich in futuristic films and this one chose the cheap option - poor. But having everyone living in burnt out apartment blocks warming their hands over 40 gallon drums is not very imaginative. Frying up a cat was vaguely interesting. Then all the action scenes are cut to buggery to disguise the fact there is no fight choreography. That is also cheap n nasty, and a waste of Michelle Yeoh. By the time you discover there is no story, for example they NEVER REVEAL what is so special about the damn babies, you don't care anyway. Any entertainment you derive from this movie comes from inside your own head, and I failed and went to make hot drinks. The only visually imaginative bit was the submarine. Also, Toorop, who is meant to be protecting his clients, keeps stomping off through the crowded market leaving them to follow. Even if you go to a rock concert with your mates you make better sticking-together arrangements than that. Charlotte Rampling was just doing a Judi Dench imitation. Female villainy needs to diversify a bit. Yeah, so, I can't think of a good thing to say about it. The first half of the movie has hardly any story at all and no background, and the second half summarises some world-changing climax without giving any details. It's not even so bad it's good, and you will regret watching it.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  17. EssiS
    Mar 18, 2009
    2
    Well it wasn´t good... I thought it started out some what interestingly, but it quickly turned into boring and pointless.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  18. IgnacioT.
    Oct 5, 2008
    8
    Its an intristing movie, but they cut a lot of scenes so thats because people doesnt like it
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  19. DanielD.
    Oct 7, 2008
    4
    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.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  20. MikeF.
    Aug 29, 2008
    2
    One has to approach this turkey with the same trepidation as walking a tightrope with a blindfold on. It looks like it will be a bad movie from the get go, but a couple of moments during the trailer make it look like a fun throwaway action movie. This however is not the case, in fact, there’s barely any action to be found in its 90 minute running time. During the exposition, we learn just about everything we need to know. Vin Diesel portrays a badass mercenary. With a body like his and his tendency to appear in just about any movie offered to him, what else would you expect him to play? He’s hired by shady criminal czar Gerard Depardieu (who’s heavily made-up to appear even uglier than he already is, and heavily dubbed as well) to transport young girl, Aurora (Melanie Thierry) from Asia to New York City in six days. He meets the young girl, who’s been raised at a convent by the overprotective Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh), and after a few ground rules agrees to tote the nun as well on the journey. For the next 80 minutes, the viewer is assaulted with cliched dialogue, like “we’re not in Kansas anymore” and “I told you I don’t trust anyone,” and “it’s either kill or be killed,” as the trio are attacked by a mysterious group who works for Aurora’s father (Lambert Wilson) and a militant religious sect led by the purposely awful Charlotte Rampling, that aging beauty who used to appear in good movies. The movie is directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, who has made one good movie to his credit, The Crimson Rivers, but has no idea how to handle this misguided action clunker. The action scenes are poorly lit, dizzyingly shot and so quick we don’t even have enough time to figure out what’s going on. The funniest scene has to be when the trio, led by another shady criminal, are traveling quickly across a snowy landscape and they are attacked by a small group of stealth planes equipped with enough weapons to level a major city. Diesel and his female cohorts are traveling on a vehicle that’s a cross between a snow-mobile and a four-wheeler, and those pesky stealth planes just can’t seem to kill them. Maybe because they look like they’re flying at 300 mph. Indeed, Diesel is apparently such a badass that he can take the stealth planes down with a few bullets and some quick maneuvering. He’s such a badass he survives multiple explosions too, one in this scene and two later on involving missiles that are targeted to a device he has inserted into his neck (don’t ask, the movie doesn’t explain that part very well). The funny part, to me, in this snowy action sequence is that these stealth planes are sent to destroy trespassers in this supposed “no entry” zone, and once they are destroyed and don’t return home, nothing else is sent after the trespassers. They make a peaceful little camp and pretend to be a family for a few hours. You’d think they would get the heck out of there. It’s a mess. It never explains fully why the girl is so special (at one point she appears to have superpowers, but the scene never explains itself), why Diesel is shot in the stomach to supposedly “save his life”, why a major character suddenly dies, what happens to the evil Charlotte Rampling, or why she doesn’t go after a couple of kids at the end, or even how Aurora seems to know the address of a special hideout. One also has to wonder why Aurora bothered to tell her friends that they would all die when they get to New York, since they don’t. I can’t complain too much since answering these questions would have required maybe another twenty minutes tacked on to the film, and as much as I hate it when movies don’t explain themselves, I was excited for it to be over prematurely. It’s a movie that should have been not made prematurely. It’s obvious that the production ran into budget constraints and needed a quick ending, but I somehow suspect that everyone involved just lost interest in the whole thing. I certainly did! … Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  21. Ollie
    Aug 30, 2008
    1
    What an absolute waste of money. The ploy made absoluty no sense and the ending made it seem like they had run out of money halfway through. Vin diesel's acting is more wooden then a garden bench. Pure crap.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  22. RasheedO.
    Sep 1, 2008
    1
    I went with my friend to watch this movie. We were really excited until the movie started. It was horrible and made no sense. Very disappointing and gives a very bad image to Vin Diesel. Horrible.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  23. AndrewB.
    Sep 11, 2008
    1
    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.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  24. JoeS.
    Sep 26, 2008
    5
    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.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  25. johnl
    Jan 14, 2009
    0
    this is one of the worst movies ive ever seen, it was so stupid that it was just laughable and towards the middle i was tempted to watch it in fast forward, it honestly wouldn't have made any difference bec the dialogue is crap anyway
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  26. R.Lopez
    Feb 21, 2009
    5
    Based on Maurice G. Dantec's dytopian sci-fi novel Babylon Babies, Mathieu Kassovitz's dystopian sci-fi/action film, which was released without critics' screenings, is rich with atmosphere but too similar to films ranging from CHILDREN OF MEN (2006) to DOOMSDAY (2008) to carve out its own distinctive niche. Former mercenary Toorup (Vin Diesel) just wants to be left alone in the dog-eat-dog hell that is post-Soviet Russia, but his past keeps coming back to haunt him. Sleazy gangster Gorsky (Gerard Depardieu) recruits Tooruo to deliver a "package" – convent-raised beauty Aurora (Melanie Thierry) – from Russia to New York City in six days. Toorup picks up Aurora and her guardian, Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh), at a centuries-old Mongolian convent that now houses the Neolite faithful: Little does he know that the High Priestess of the burgeoning Neolite religian (Charlotte Rampling) is counting on Aurora to legitimize the cult's tenets in the eyes of the world. Toorup and Sister Rebeka gradually forge an uneasy alliance rooted in their desire to protect the mystifying Aurora (Melanie Thierry), who spoke 19 languages at the age of two and possesses an uncanny ability to see the future and parse the past. French writer-actor-director Kassovitz – whose credits range from LA HAINE (1995) to GOTHIKA (2003), publically disowned BABYLON A.D., calling it "pure violence and stupidity" and comparing it to "a bad episode of 24." But for all its generic qualities. BABYLON A.D. is well acted, briskly paced and consistently clear: Like Neil Marshall's DOOMSADAY (2008), which was accorded an equally cursory theatrical release, it's bare-bones genre entertainment, no better or worse than it ought to be.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  27. eRonin
    Mar 4, 2009
    5
    Requires heavy suspension of disbelief. Scenes are set up well. FX are interesting. Actors are good. The script... the story... unfortunately isn't there.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  28. EnzoP.
    Jul 16, 2009
    1
    Babylon A.D. is one of the worst action films I have ever seen. Once I start to get interested again something stupid happens that ruins my charming moment. It's a good idea it is just made very badly. Mathieu Kassovitz has made the worst action/thriller of 2008.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  29. JaredC.
    Aug 25, 2008
    6
    At first glance, it didn't look too bad. But at the special screening, the movie was expected, or so, not that bad. It's just, if they replaced Vin Diesel with some other actor, then Babylon A.D. would be a little better. I didn't worship it, I thought it was okay, yet it did have a cool setting and some intense scenes, but it's definitely not one to worship. XXX fans will love it though.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  30. JessilaC
    Jan 12, 2009
    5
    WAS a good movie until it came out on dvd. HALF the scenes that were in the movie played in the theatre were deleted when put onto disk. The Hummer scene that I watched In the theatre was no longer a part of the movie when i watched it at home. Same goes for when he arrives in the US and he has to walk through the detector, that scene was no longer that and Neither was the very last scene at the end where it shows BOTH children, one white and one of different race and deisel. that scene to was cut out so WHO makes a movie one way for theatres only to CHANGE it for disk? Now the movie sucks.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  31. TimoV
    Mar 13, 2009
    1
    Utter bs with the world's most pretentious story. How on earth sh*t like this can cost 70 MILLION DOLLARS?
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  32. Danny197
    Aug 21, 2010
    1
    Whilst the film's portrayal of a dystopian future is intriguing, the rest of the film was poor, with sub-par acting, a plot that trailed off into non-existence by the twenty-minute mark, and a main character that has little to no real motivation. The film's ending seems nonsensical, feeling as though there should be more beyond. The opening sequence is enough to grab your attention and the technology used throughout is interesting, but don't let this fool you: Babylon AD is one to avoid.… Expand
  33. avatar16
    Jan 7, 2012
    2
    Babylon A. D. avait, sur le papier, tout ce qu'il fallait pour être le nouveau Blade Runner, à commencer par un réalisateur de talent (Mathieu Kassovitz), un fond scénaristique intéressant dans le domaine de la science-fiction et quelques pensées philosophiques sur notre société. Mais malheureusement, le film est très loin d'atteindre ce sommet. Surtout qu'au lieu d'être un long-métrage puissant tel Les Fils de l'Homme, Babylon A. D. a les airs d'une série B américaine ou bien d'une production Besson (au choix) qui , en plus, n'explose à aucun moment pour satisfaire les férus d'action (les scènes étant peu nombreuses et inintéressantes). Sans parler d'un scénario à la fois incompréhensible (cette société futuriste est juste survolée et non détaillé) et trop fade (tout comme l'ambiance, rendue énervante par la bande son). Et puis, c'est quoi cette voix française donnée à Vin Diesel? Reste un hônnete casting. Mais l'intérêt du film reste bien mystérieux...… Expand
  34. Sachi
    Dec 14, 2011
    1
    "Babylon A.D." is a poorly rendered film that is messy, incomprehensible, and just plain bad. The plot is very confusing as I did not understand what the hell was going on, the film is just messy and has like no visual flair at all so it is uneasy on the eyes. The action sequences are poorly rendered and very boring and the acting is kinda lame as well. Do not watch this train wreck of a movie, you will be left going "What?" at the end and feel that you just wasted two hours of your life watching this convoluted train wreck. Breakdown for "Babylon A.D.": Presentation: 2, Plot: 1.3, Acting: 2.3, Script: 1.7, Lasting Appeal: 0.5, Verdict: 1.1 out of 10 "Awful".… Expand
  35. pope
    Oct 22, 2011
    0
    I have a lot of pleasure! Foolish hollywood movie. And - i live in Troizk. No any common with reality. Movie to make an foolish teens more and more foolish
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Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
26 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 15 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 15
  3. Negative: 10 out of 15
  1. Variety
    Reviewed by: Jordan Mintzer
    40
    A noisier, costlier version of "Children of Men," yet lacking that film's social-political significance and jaw-dropping direction.
    Read full review
  2. Empire
    Reviewed by: James Dyer
    40
    Brawny but brainless techno-twaddle.
    Read full review
  3. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    20
    The plot makes absolutely no sense.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »