The Babylon AD reviews have staggered online, confused and bewildered. It’s been one of those infamously ‘difficult’ productions, running over budget and way beyond its schedule - to the point where the film had to be bailed out by its insurance company. Never a good sign.

Here are some quotes:

Variety -

“Vin Diesel punches, shoots but ultimately dozes his way through the sloppy sci-fi actioner… A noisier, costlier version of ‘Children of Men’, yet lacking that film’s social-political significance and jaw-dropping direction….”

Empire -

“Garbled sci-fi yarn… a vision of the future awash with dystopian clichés. …[the] relationship between all three protagonists is distant and disinterested …the fights are competent rather than exhilarating, which is a problem given the incoherence of the narrative. …caps the story with a flat climax…and a bewildering coda.”

And here’s what Babylon AD’s own director had to say about his movie this week -

“I’m very unhappy with the film, I never had a chance to do one scene the way it was written or the way I wanted it to be. The script wasn’t respected. Bad producers, bad partners, it was a terrible experience. …It’s pure violence and stupidity. The movie is supposed to teach us that the education of our children will mean the future of our planet. …parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24. Fox was sending lawyers who were only looking at all the commas and the dots. They made everything difficult from A to Z.” (He says Fox interfered in the editing too) “I like the energy of it and I got some scenes I’m happy with, but I had something much better in my hands I just wasn’t allowed to work. …I don’t see how people who went through all these amazing blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Iron Man this summer will take it. …I should have chosen a studio that has guts. Fox was just trying to get a PG-13 movie. I’m ready to go to war against them, but I can’t because they don’t give a s–t.” (source: AMC)