Big Picture Big Sound

The Film

When one sits down to view a film that has been disowned by its director, one has to be prepared for the worst. Such is the case with Babylon A.D., director Matthieu Kassovitz's film adaptation of author Maurice Georges Dante's science fiction novel Babylon Babies. Kassovitz distanced himself from the film with some 15-minutes reportedly being excised from the final cut by producers without the director's consent. The result is a film that wants to tell a story and deliver a message, but instead is interrupted by jarringly nonsensical action sequences and an inane finale that will leave most viewers scratching their heads. This Blu-ray release does claim to be "Raw and Uncut," so perhaps if it has actually restored that missing 15 minutes, then Kassovitz's claim that is was all the producers' faults was unwarranted, because the film is still a mess on this disc.

Babylon A.D. is hardly original science fiction fare. It is the story of a post apocalyptic dystopian world torn asunder by the ravages of nuclear war and terrorism. One former military veteran turned mercenary, Toorop (Vin Diesel), is hired by a Russian mobster to escort a young woman named Aurora (Mélanie Thierry) along with her escort and guardian, a nun named Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh) from Russia to New York City.  Aurora is sought after by a technological cult-cum-religion seeking a child she carries to be their next messiah of sorts. The film on the whole borrows heavily from such science fiction fare as Ridley Scott's Blade Runner or even the more recent Children of Men in its bleak outlook on the direction of society as well as in its production values. One cannot see Babylon A.D.'s New York City lit up with its incessant flashing lights and ad campaigns and not recall Blade Runner sans the flying cars.

There is an underlying social message trying to break through in Babylon A.D.. When the film begins, it offers some promise, if one overlooks the painfully cliché voice-over by Vin Diesel, delivering droll bits of cynicism such as "Save the planet; whenever I hear that I have to laugh."  Beneath the sleek production and derivative sci-fi theme there's a parable about humanity that is very relevant in this post-9/11 world, and the film's first act starts out rather engagingly addressing those issues. Unfortunately, things begin to break down in the editing room and the narrative loses out to absurd action sequences dropped in at inopportune moments, breaking up the storyline so that it becomes nearly impossible to follow what is actually going on.

Perhaps someday, we might get a Babylon A.D. Director's Cut that would restore the film to some semblance of consistency and make it far more palatable, assuming this "Raw and Uncut" version is not already it. If that day comes and it is still an unwatchable mess, then surely the film deserves all of the bad criticism that has been heaped upon it. For now, however, I think it has been a bit harshly judged. Though I do understand -- even agree with --  some of the criticisms, Babylon A.D. is hardly the worst science fiction film I have ever seen.  It's a middling, poorly executed and somewhat unoriginal take on grand ideas that has some shining moments, but won't be viewed as a classic anytime soon.

The Picture

Babylon A.D.'s 2.35:1 high definition AVC/MPEG-4 encoding sure looks good enough on Blu-ray. The film's moody, subdued color palette and gritty textured appearance are well captured. There is a fine layer of grain structure apparent throughout, imparting a realistic film-like appearance. The transfer exhibits strong black levels, but with nearly perfect shadow detail showing only occasional instances of black crush. There is superb foreground detail with good extension of background detail. Check the scene in Chapter 7 with the snow falling -- even far in the background the finest snowflakes are clearly visible.

The Sound

As is typical for Fox, Babylon A.D. is provided with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless mix and it is the strongest part of this release. Babylon A.D. has clean dialogue balanced well in the mix and the front three channels are effectively utilized with action panned across the front soundstage directionally. The surround channels are also used for some discrete directionality and ambient sound effects for an engaging and coherent mix.  The low frequency extension is clean, deep and solid, particularly when there are explosions and gunfire during action sequences and in the pulsating rhythms of Atli Örvarsson's dark, techno-influenced score.

The Extras

Babylon A.D. on Blu-ray offers a decent amount of supplemental material to help increase the value of the release.  Much information is provided detailing the production of the film itself, but, unsurprisingly, no reference is made to Matthieu Kassovitz's disowning of the film throughout any of these behind-the-scenes looks.

The extras available on this release are:

• BonusView -- Picture-in-picture content for those with BonusView (Profile 1.1) capable players is provided. Thankfully, for those who still have first-generation, Profile 1.0 players incapable of playing back BonusView content, Fox also provides acess to the content individually:
  • Scene Evolution -- View behind-the-scenes looks of the film sequences being constructed.
  • Babylon A.D. Commercials --View commercials from the world of Babylon A.D.
• Featurettes:
  • Babylon Babies -- Director Matthieu Kassovitz talks of adapting the Maurice Georges Dantec novel to the screen. Arctic Escape -- Filming and choreographing the snow mobile action sequences.
  • Fit for the Screen -- Coordinating the fight sequences
  • Flight of the Hummers
  • Prequel to Babylon A.D.: Genesis of Aurora -- An animated short that serves as a prequel to the film.
• Deleted Scene -- Hummer Sequence (2.35:1/high definition/Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Still Galleries
• Trailers (high definition)
  • Stargate: Continuum
  • The X-Files: I Want to Believe
  • The Happening
• Inside Look: Behind Enemy Lines Colombia (1.78:1/high definition)
• Digital Copy -- Bonus DVD with access to a standard definition downloadable digital copy of the film for playback on Mac/PC and iPod/Windows Media-compatible portable devices.
• D-Box Motion Code

Final Thoughts

Babylon A.D. is a great example of what happens when executives and bean counters, instead of artists, take hold of a project and try to finish it, lacking any vision or story-telling abilities. You end up with a bad film that maybe could have been better that tanks at the box office. Fortunately this Blu-ray release looks and sounds great, but I recommend this as a rental first for anyone interested in checking this film out.

Where to Buy

• Babylon A.D. on Blu-ray Disc (Amazon.com)

Product Details

• Actors: Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Méanie Thierry, Charlotte Rampling, Lambert Wilson, Gérard Depardieu, Mark Strong
• Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
• Audio/Languages: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish 
• Region: A
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: January 6, 2009
• Run Time: 101 minutes
• List price: $39.99
• Extras:
  • "Babylon Babies" Featurette
  • "Arctic Escape" Featurette
  • "Fit For the Screen" Featurette
  • "Flight of the Hummers" Featurette
  • "Prequel to Babylon A.D.: Genesis of Aurora" Digital Graphic Novel
  • BonusView
  • Enhanced for D-Box Motion Control Systems
  • Digital Copy