Babylon A.D.

Finally, I got the chance to watch another movie, that is Babylon A.D., starring: Vin Diesel, Melanie Thierry, Michelle Yeoh, etc. Well, it was not a good movie as I expected. I really hope there was more action....lari sana lari sini, tembak2 hehe..... The movie only played for 1 hr 30 mins, very short ah...

Based from the movie, Vin Diesel is trying to save the planet than like he's fighting off a really bad hangover; Vin Diesel punches, shoots but ultimately dozes his way through the sloppy sci-fi actioner "Babylon A.D." After a (literally) eye-catching sequence that shows early signs of the CGI action to come, pic flashes back a week earlier to war-rattled "New Serbia," where gun-for-hire Toorop (Diesel) sits out the fighting in a boarded-up apartment. Dressed like a frat boy heading for an early morning class and showing just as much conviction, he barely reacts when a SWAT team busts in to bring him to Gorsky (Gerard Depardieu, sporting an unnecessary prosthetic nose), a Russian mafioso offering a sizeable payoff if Toorop delivers a special package to New York.

The package in question is a mysterious blonde nymph, Aurora (Melanie Thierry), who's been hidden away in a convent under the protection of Sister Rebecca (Michelle Yeoh). Instead of inquiring why Aurora is worth the hefty price of border smuggling, Toorop shrugs off any serious questioning, unsuccessfully tries to light a cigarette (a gag repeated throughout), and the three set off.

First destination is a train station in Kazakhstan, which occasions one of the pic's more convincing set pieces when a bomb detonates. A second stop at a Vladivostok nightclub (whose featured entertainment is Ultimate Fighting Championship-style death matches) introduces Toorop's war buddy Finn (Mark Strong) to the team, and the four barely escape a run-in with some jumpy henchman.

Lengthy middle action sequence has them crossing the Bering Strait on snowmobiles (actually shot in Sweden), and here the place they did acting revisits the kinds of snow-filled scenes that marked his French suspenser "The Crimson Rivers". Yet as with most of this pic's fighting and effects, the reliance on extreme closeups, frenzied handheld camerawork and rapid editing leaves little room to enjoy the breathtaking views, let alone fully grasp Toorop's heroic abilities.

When they finally reach New York -- which, in this futuristic version, has a few more skyscrapers and a lot more electronic billboards -- they prepare to hand Aurora over to the pale Neolite Priestess (Charlotte Rampling, convincing but short-lived), who heads up the powerful sect/corporation that commanded the transaction. But, as previewed by the pic's initial flash-forward, the exchange does not go according to plan.

Summing up, I couldnt understand the story plot hehe as it was a bit complicated and what made it worse was that the ending was very lousy... I dun think they can attract movie freak with that stupid ending hahaa. I rate this movie only 5 out of 10.