Vin Diesel, Babylon A.D.

I first saw Vin Diesel in Boiler Room (2000), in which he played an ambitious stock broker, and in Pitch Black (2000), in which he played a talented and useful outlaw; and I found him an attractive and promising actor. It is sad for me to see him in Babylon A.D. and realize that he is its most disappointing element. He no longer projects the energy, intelligence, or sexuality he had when he was younger; and here, in Babylon A.D., which gives us a world both futuristic and barbaric, Vin Diesel conveys a roughness, and toughness, that are believable, and possibly entirely appropriate for his character, a mercenary hired to transport a young woman from a Mongolian convent to New York, a man without illusions. His performance in Babylon A.D. may be impressive, on its own terms, but it is a charmless performance. (There is a point in the film when, having showered, with a towel around his waist, the hairy and now soft-chested Diesel is discovered by a woman; and there seemed the possibility of sex: and, I was hoping it wouldn't happen; and I was hoping his towel would stay wrapped around his body. Well, when you find yourself hoping there won't be a sex scene in a movie...) Yet, I found things to like in the film. I like science fiction, which this is: I like speculation about the future. I like to see consideration given to how the present might affect the future; and how the future might answer the questions that trouble us now. Science fiction can be very intelligent, even philosophical. Babylon A.D., directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, is a very good looking film: the natural geography and rare architecture that we see is great: what is presented as the mountainside Mongolian convent and the white-ice Bering Strait, and a New York City in which all is like Times Square (a bright orgy of corporate power)! The action in the film is dynamic. Unfortunately, although the film's story involves the scientific manipulation of the human body, and the cold cruel authority of religion, as Babylon A.D. explores a very dangerous future, the film is not really about science or religion. It has no real philosophical purpose. Yet, other than Diesel, established actors such as Michelle Yeoh, Charlotte Rampling, and Gerard Depardieu are in it (Yeoh as the young woman's chaperone and friend; Rampling as a religious leader; and Depardieu as some sort of master criminal). Yeoh was good, believable as a friend and a fighter, never losing her dignity. Rampling did herself no honors but she was not shameful. Depardieu--well, his presence is unfortunate in more than one way. I cannot imagine what any of these three actors was thinking as she or he read the script, though their participation may suggest that even famous actors have mortgages to pay or children to put through shockingly expensive schools...Speaking of children, as the end credits of the film rolled, I could hear children in the back of the theater complain about the movie--and I was embarrassed that I enjoyed the film even as much as I did. Children are usually not shy about saying when someone's ugly, or when something smells like.....