[MOVIE REVIEW] The Plain Adventure of a Tough Guy- "The Age of Babylon"

"The Age of Babylon" is adapted from the novel "Babylon Baby" by French Canadian author Maurice G. Dante. A retired veteran, a martial arts nun, a mysterious girl, a long escort journey, these several elements constitute the keynote of the adventure of the whole film.

    Audiences who are familiar with Van Diesel must be impressed by his role as a tough guy in the "Fast and Furious" series. Generally speaking, this type of character played by Van Diesel is characterized by proficient in various combat driving and survival skills while being full of leadership and charisma. Although not invincible, it is also highly skilled at all times, with expressions and speech. The body movements are all "cool", which can satisfy the audience's sense of admiration for heroism and the strong to a certain extent. Van Diesel himself is obviously very comfortable with this rebellious drama. The science fiction film "The Age of Babylon" co-starring with Michelle Yeoh also belongs to the same category.

Van Diesel

    "The Babylonian Age" is adapted from the French-Canadian writer Maurice G. Dante's novel "Babylonian Baby". A retired soldier, a martial arts nun, a mysterious girl, a long escort journey, these several elements constitute the keynote of the adventure of the whole film. The film takes a flashback approach. It starts with a long descent shot from outer space to the sky above the streets of New York. Tracking missiles draw dazzling flames on the streets, and the slow motion of the actor Tulu behind the violent explosion presents huge suspense. sense. The audience will guess, what can cause such fierce conflict, what happened on the streets of New York? From this point of view, the opening design is quite attractive.

"Babylonian Age"

   Next, the time is switched to the plot from the beginning a few days ago. The impoverished mercenary Tulu accepted a well-paid escort mission. Within six days, he was to escort a mysterious girl from a rugged European monastery, across the Bering Strait and the American continent to New York, accompanied by Michelle Yeoh. Rebecca played as a nun. Sister Rebecca warned Tularu that the girl had a mysterious background and must be forbidden to contact the outside world or even communicate with Tuluru. Like the law of "the more you banned, the more I will do" in all movie plots, Tulu naturally had emotional entanglements with the girl during the escort. This kind of detached emotional clues gave the difficult escort to be chased all the way. The mileage adds more uncertainty, making it very difficult for the audience to predict the future direction of the plot.

"Babylonian Age" stills

   From bulletproof cars full of steel bars, to crowded and noisy trains, to submarines rising in the icy ocean, to simple single-person snowmobiles, Tulu and his party have experienced more than all kinds of dazzling transportation. There are even layers of mysteries. From the moment when she was chased and killed inexplicably when she just set off, the doubts that appeared on the girl's body were layered and accumulated. She has a knowledge that is completely disproportionate to her own age, and can manipulate the submarine that she has seen for the first time in the Russian deep sea; she has a special perception ability and can communicate with surrounding animals or other humans. Just when the audience and Tulu thought that she was a girl with a genius and an ability to bear a heavy responsibility, they arrived in New York, and the recipient sent a doctor to perform a medical examination on the girl to confirm that the delivery was completed. However, the Tulu The courier decided to go back after a fierce ideological struggle, and the three of them fought fiercely on the streets with the villains. According to the law, Tulu has the protagonist's halo, who can survive when hit by cruise rockets in the ice sea. This kind of small scene should easily break through, but in the chaotic gunfire, the girl suddenly wakes up and raises the gun. One shot hit Tulu. At the same time, the missile capable of destroying everything hits like a maggot attached to a bone, so the scene of the big explosion at the beginning of the film appeared.

    It should be said that at this point in the plot, the suspense setting of the film or the "appetite" as the saying goes is still very successful. Audiences who have not read the original work are generally full of questions about "why the girl suddenly attacked her", and at the same time look forward to how the later plot will reveal the ulterior secret of this girl. After the flashback, everything went to naught with the huge explosion, but Tulu, who relied on the protection of the protagonist's halo, survived miraculously under the treatment of the sudden appearance of the girl's father. The girl’s father gave the answer, saying that this girl has the ability to surpass normal human beings and is the focus of the fight between good and evil. In the explosion scene, she relied on her awakening ability to make Tulu escape the missile’s ashes through decisive shooting. Bombing, he also fled the scene at an astonishing speed at the very moment of the bombing. This scene is simply the reproduction of the housekeeping skills of "Fast Silver" in the X-Men series. It's just a pity why this ability didn't wake up earlier, so that the martial arts and powerful nun Rebecca was sacrificed in vain.    Tulu relied on the clues in the previous interaction with the girl to find the place he had agreed with the girl. Soon, the cult leader also came to the door, and the new secret was revealed. It turned out that the girl's father did not fully tell the truth. The girl is just a container or carrier of superpowers. The baby born after her pregnancy is the real killer. The question is, why did she really get pregnant?    The plot design of this section is very abrupt. The girl is going to give birth like a thunderstorm. The screenwriter used the characters in the play to throw out the setting again, saying that the girl as a super container loses its meaning after giving birth. Knowing this, Tulu went to visit the childbirth girl in the delivery room, and then with a cry of the baby, the girl's heart stopped beating, and the whole film stopped abruptly in the confusion of the audience.

    Objectively speaking, "The Age of Babylon" can hardly be called a wonderful film. Although its sci-fi core is bright but not enough, the late hastily ending is even more criticized. For audiences, although Michelle Yeoh's martial arts scenes are attractive, the inexplicable sacrifices behind them are also inspiring. Perhaps only by referring to the original work, the audience can infer the rationality of the plot. From the perspective of the film alone, many questions have not given a reasonable explanation, and it is also not suitable to be blocked by "blank" reasons, which can only be understood as "absence".    Presumably, the corner of the baby should be a dark line, a metaphor for the beautiful hope of mankind in the future. Sister Rebecca played a maternal role, taking good care of this hope and accompanying her growth. However, the surrounding evil forces will inevitably attempt to strangle this new force. This is the source of the contradictions and conflicts in the film. As for Tulu, it is the fuse that ignites the mysterious power of the girl through emotion. After the three people broke through the ice blockade of the Bering Strait during their journey, there was a warmth scene where they laid down their shelves and talked in the candle night. At that time, even the cold nun Rebecca also had a smile on her face. It feels like a plain home. Perhaps, the director just wanted to embody the cruelty in the world of the weak and the strong, he did not hesitate to crush this fleeting "home", which is one of the few highlights in the film.    The film was co-produced by the United States and France. The media had high hopes for the box office before its release, and its special effects were also the focus of publicity. Unfortunately, the heat after the release was dull, not as popular as expected, and the film has not much room left after the original adaptation, and there will probably not be any sequels later.