Babylon A.D. (2008)

Pitch Black (2000) was awesome, it came out of nowhere, a top action film that was extraordinarily original and the inspiration for a whole new wave of video games (Gears of War (2006) anybody). It held its own against top action flicks of the same year including Gladiator (2000) and X-Men (2000). If it had been backed up with a more substantial advertising budget or tweaked it's content for a more marketable certificate rating it would have easily reached higher in the box office ratings (67th for that year).

Most significantly it introduced a new kind of action hero. Sure he was buffed to the max as per usual and had a voice deeper than the guy who dubs Bruce Willis in Spanish but it was the shrouded mystery that carried his success both on and off screen. Since then he has been in a car movie franchise (incidentally the new one comes out next year), A Man Apart (2003) and a bunch of sequels to the aforementioned Pitch Black. By now of course the mystery has dissipated. As a general rule, with every new role come more lines of dialogue. It's not an ideal correlation for Mr. Diesel as his acting abilities are slowly becoming more and more tested. His latest performance is no exception.

Following hot on the heels of so-bad-it's-good Transporter (2002), Mercenary must deliver organism carrying Aurora (Mélanie Thierry) to Manhattan, all the way from Russia. Impossible you say? Never! Not with film editor Benjamin Weill on the case. We zip and cut our way over nation wide landscapes using cars, helicopters and skidoos to name but a few. Of course it's not the editors fault, he just meshes it all together. Who's to blame then? Well not director Mathieu Kassovitz either. He's been working on this project for 5 years and has already disowned it after 5 minutes. His Hollywood career is certainly over (can we have more hate now please?) but after this experience would he want to return?

It is a (90 minute) mess of a film but if you walk in there understanding this then you may just walk out enjoying it. I did.