What effect could a move to Hollywood have on a foreign filmmker? Babylon A.D. serves as Exhibit A. The man behind this grim view of the future is Mathieu Kassovitz, a French actor/director who first hit the scene with the harrowing La Haine and also helmed the rather skillfully morbid thriller The Crimson Rivers. Alas, his tour of duty on this side of the pond hasn't been as successful, for in addition to the woefully corny Gothika, Kassovitz now brings us the equally cheezy Babylon A.D. 

Last seen sporting a gut in Find Me Guilty, Vin Diesel returns to the big screen as Toorop, a mercenary for hire tooling around eastern Europe. It's an untold amount of time into the future, long after major cities have transformed into vast metropolises, leaving everyone else in the world to pretty much fend for themselves. One day, Toorop's services are called upon by the unsavory Gorsky (Gerard Depardieu), who wants him to make sure a young girl named Aurora (Melanie Thierry) gets from Mongolia to the United States in one piece. It's just another job for our man Toorop, but he soon discovers there's more to Aurora than meets the eye. With an encylopedic knowledge and knack for predicting the future, Aurora is obviously no ordinary girl, although Toorop isn't quite sure what's wrong with her. What he does know is that their journey to the States won't be an easy one, especially when two forces emerge that want to capture Aurora for their own purposes.

In the days leading up to Babylon A.D.'s release, Kassovitz revealed his deep disapproval of the film's theatrical form. He claimed that Fox pretty much took the project away from him and made the movie they wanted, and from the looks of things,  he's probably right. Babylon A.D. isn't to be written off completely as yet another member of the cinema's late summer dumping grounds, for there's more to admire about the film than you might expect. Though I had a lot of questions about the exact trouble the world was in and how it got to its current state (one character casually mentions global warming, but I don't buy it), Kassovitz devises a good chunk of scenes capturing the desperation the characters live with. One in particular comes across as especially effective. It depicts dozens of refugees scrambling for a seat on a submarine that's not going to wait for everybody. Kassovitz also takes the time to make an interesting point or two in how big a part religion and corporations play in society, with vast billboards featuring the high priestess (Charlotte Rampling) of a burgeoning faith preaching her gospel to the masses.

Babylon A.D. could have been molded into another Children of Men, a film combining action and social commentary into one extraordinary package. But while Kassovitz musters up a good start with the latter, when the former enters the picture Babylon A.D. starts to head south in a big way. Not only are the action sequences not all that exciting, they arrive on a moment's notice and disappear just as quickly, shoehorned into the mix for fear audiences might actually start concentrating on the plot. Such scenes are as tactless as can be, especially a nightclub brawl between Toorop and by a troupe I can only describe as a post-apocalyptic version of Cirque du Soleil. As far as casting goes, Diesel's machismo and world-weariness help him make it through the ordeal with his dignity intact. I can't say the same for the talented Michelle Yeoh, who's wasted in the role of Aurora's tough-as-nails guardian, or poor Charlotte Rampling, given the task of barking orders at underlings in a thankless role I'm fairly certain she had a long talk with her agent about.

Babylon A.D. is far from the unmitigated disaster  Kassovitz and some critics are declaring it to be. The film boasts a slick enough look, and whenever a joyless action sequence isn't being shoved in your face, the story contains enough power to make you think a  bit. Ultimately, though, Babylon A.D. emerges as too vague for its own good and too conflicted concerning  what it wants to be. It's a film twice as disappointing because it could have been great.

MY RATING: ** (out of ****)

(Released by 20th Century Fox and rated "PG-13" for intense sequences of violence and action, language and some sexuality.)