Babylon A.D.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Babylon A.D. is that it isn’t nearly as bad as the critical consensus might lead you to believe. It’s one of the worst reviewed films of the year, but it’s actually good looking, and you can almost understand what Vin Diesel is saying most of the time. Diesel plays a mercenary hired to escort a young woman to New York City, for reasons that are unexplained. Michelle Yeoh joins them for the trek, and the picture winds up being some sort of action road movie. The film seems to be building to something interesting, but once it gets to Manhattan, it rushes towards a truncated ending. Director Mahieu Kassovitz has basically disowned the movie, saying the studio messed with him and screwed up his vision. This seems to be possible, because the result certainly feels like something is missing.