The future looks bleak in ‘Babylon’
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Babylon A.D.
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starring Vin Disel, Michelle Yeoh and Melanie Thierry
The theme of an apocalyptic world or an earth on the verge of
self-destruction is nothing new. It’s the thing novels are made of,
and TV movies, and films. For some reason humans have an obsession
with a future in which they have created a world that can no longer
sustain itself. Some of the best examples of this are in Japanese
anime, a culture that has perhaps been shaped because it comes from
the only nation to survive an atomic blast.
The future looks bleak in ‘Babylon’
“Babylon A.D.” starring Vin Disel, Michelle Yeoh and Melanie Thierry
The theme of an apocalyptic world or an earth on the verge of self-destruction is nothing new. It’s the thing novels are made of, and TV movies, and films. For some reason humans have an obsession with a future in which they have created a world that can no longer sustain itself. Some of the best examples of this are in Japanese anime, a culture that has perhaps been shaped because it comes from the only nation to survive an atomic blast.
In one of my favorite series, “Trigun,” a non-violent hero fights the bad guys on a dusty, barren planet where water is scarce and hunger is a constant. In another “Cowboy Bebop,” a band of bounty hunters travel from planet to planet searching for the next catch. Both characters inhabit a future in which the Earth has been destroyed and humans must fight to stay alive on other planets. The humor of the series is the only thing that takes the edge off such a bleak idea of the future.
“Babylon A.D.,” written by Eric Besnard and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, has the same bleak outlook of humanity. The sci-fi movie has the feel and look of “Blade Runner,” the 1982 film starring Harrison Ford about a man who is searching to destroy replicants – human clones. The novelist Maurice Dantec who wrote the novel that the newer film is based on was largely influenced by Phillip K. Dick. Dick wrote the novel on which “Blade Runner” is based. He also wrote quite a few more sci-fi books that all shared the same dark view of humanity.
While “Blade Runner” was set in 2019, “Babylon A.D.,” is set further in the future, though it never becomes clear exactly when. All that is clear is that one of the characters, after seeing caged Siberian tigers said they must have been cloned because tigers went extinct in 2017. So the idea of cloning enters the movie early on. But the writers could not stick to tackling one major ethical issue. The movie also takes stabs at religion, technology and war. These are all issues that are enough to start a week-long debate on their own, but a 90-minute action flick seems a little paltry as a venue to tackle them all.
In the film Toorop (Vin Diesel) is hired to ferry a young girl to America. Toorop is a former war veteran turned mercenary and has been banned from the shores of his native United States, though it never becomes clear exactly why except that he is on a terrorist watch list. Toorop is so seduced by the prospect of a black market technology that will allow him to cross the boundaries home and start a new life that he doesn’t even ask why the girl needs to be moved from the outskirts of Russia to New York.
The girl, Aurora (Melanie Thierry, a French-born actress who has appeared in a number of films overseas but will be new to American audiences), has blond hair, blue eyes and a heart-shaped mouth. She has spent her life living in an isolated convent without influence from the outside world. On the surface she seems to be a beautiful, but ordinary teenager. Toorop and Aurora travel with Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh) who raised Aurora. The two women are members of a cult-like religion with headquarters in America.
As the trio travel through war-torn Russia in scenes where people are willing to risk their lives at a chance to escape to America, Toorop begins to question his mission. Aurora has a knack for predicting when something that threatens their lives is about to happen, and leads them away from danger. Rebeka tells Toorop they are headed to America because she fears Aurora is sick. Though she has always possessed extraordinary talents – speaking 19 languages at the age of 2 – the teenager has become paranoid and obsessed with thoughts that she will soon die.
The movie is spread too thin between all the things it is trying to challenge in the modern-day world. The only thing that makes it worth a watch is Thierry, and a short appearance by Gerard Depardieu, the Russian who hires Toorop to bring the girl to New York. He plays Gorsky and is hardly recognizable with a pock-marked face and bad hair. Many of the other characters are too underdeveloped to really have much impact on screen, even the characters that are driving Aurora’s move to the United States.
All the secrets in the movie are resolved quickly in the last half hour, but the end will leave viewers feeling cheated as the last few minutes are rushed to their conclusion.
