Enjoyable film that surprised me

Babylon A.D. (2008)

I saw this earlier and found Babylon A.D. to be a very intriguing and very visual experience. At the same time, a pretty powerful movie.

Sure, Babylon A.D. looks like 2006's Children of Men on steroids, but it's actually pretty different than Children of Men and has a different style to it. EX. IT doesn't use shaky cam 24/7 like Cauron used throughout the film, if anything shaky cam comes into play with the car chases.

In regards to to the action set pieces, they're pretty engaging and hardcore. They don't go into silliness either.

In fact, this whole movie doesn't go into the level of silliness. It remains as a pretty cold and dark film, with a few jokes here and there but nothing over the top. The cinematography's right.

The story itself was pretty coherent( could've used a lot more, but it was solid enough) and so where the action set pieces. But, it's also fast past, so you should try to avoid the method "shutting your brain off" unless that term in a verbal irony. Personally I don't shut my Brain off when I watch or read something, but that's another topic.

Acting wise I thought everybody did a good job. Vin Diesel pulled off a very good performance, better than his usual share of action hero performances. Michelle Yoeh was nice and strong. And Melanie Theirry was very powerful and deep as Aurora, the girl Vin's protecting.

This film has a very visual style going for it which actually blew me away, and I've seen a lot of futuristic science fiction movies. But, it's not quite as visual as films like The Fifth Element, but it is darker than the fifth element I'll tell you that.

The musical score was a bit over the top in some areas, but it didn't ruin the movie at the very least.

I can understand why the director hates the Fox cut of the film, but I actually enjoyed it even despite the harsh comments the director had said in regards to it, like how it was "dumb" and at times a "bad episode of 24." I got much more than what I expecting to be perfectly honest.

Babylon A.D. is a cold science fiction action thriller which has a good heart. One of Vin Diesel's better action films.

Higlhy recommend.

Movie

Babylon A.D. Trailer