LosAngelesTimes
Michael Ordona
The gritty world-weariness that informs the first 10 minutes of the new sci-fi adventure Babylon A.D. promises something along the lines of the daring, socially inquisitive Children of Men, with the bonus of Vin Diesel killing people. Unfortunately, the film quickly degenerates into chases and gunfights and not much else.
Amelie but also respected in Europe as a filmmaker (La Haine), does have a vision beyond the usual genre schlock. He presents a casually hopeless future in the movie's opening segment in a rugged, desperate Russia, the ugly other side of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.
Babylon feels like an almost random pastiche of good and bad. There may be a deadly virus, or genetic engineering, or a virgin birth, or some combination of all, it's not clear.
Babylon Babies), but on screen there is merely that improbable gun battle and further echoes of Blade Runner.
Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times