Babylon AD

Babylon AD is an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in a very shallow script.

The movie has a good story that is mired only by the aforementioned shallow script which appears to have the sole purpose of propelling Vin Diesel from one bombastic stunt sequence to the next.

You can see some genuine genius in places, most of which has been carried from the novel, and some fantastic set pieces such as the train passing through a radiation zone that appears to be a former industrial complex that had suffered a nuclear attack (with the train bridge passing over the crater).

But for all the potential the film keeps coming back to the same idea of trying to be a darker xXx. When you aren't watching a fight sequence it feels like you are just killing time until the next fight sequence.

And honestly, does every bloody action film made these days have to have a free-running sequence in it? Yes District 13 looked good, and it was done very well in Casino Royale, but we get the point. I suppose it shouldn't shock me really, free-running is after all the new 'bullet time', and unsurprisingly Babylon AD had to squeeze plenty of that slow motion nonsense in too.

Vin Diesel's acting isn't terrible, but if it were any more wooden he would be Keanu Reeves.

There is however one rather amusing moment involving a nuclear missile.

Overall I'd say that if you wanted to watch an action movie with a genuine story then you could do worse than Babylon AD, just don't try to convince anyone that the dialogue is good. Oh, and the ending is very forced.

Rating: C