After Babylon AD, star Vin Diesel quickly returned to the Fast and Furious franchise. Wise move.

Babylon AD is a short film, edited to shreds by the film production company and the director disowned his own movie due to the studio interference. You can tell because it has a derivative and boring look, bad dialogue, uninspired action scenes and I am not sure what really happened at the end, the film just finished.

The film is set in a dystopian near future Diesel plays Toorop a tough mercenary hired to bring a mysterious genetically modified young woman, Aurora from Russia to America. Aurora has been raised in a convent and knows little about the world around her. Michelle Yeoh plays a kung fu nun sidekick who is Aurora's guardian.

As Toorop is wanted in America he himself has to be smuggled inside while unsavoury people are after them and Aurora displays some special powers. Waiting for Aurora in New York is a high priestess who plans to use her special abilities to develop a new religion.

There is an interesting and diverse cast that includes Gerard Depardieu, Charlotte Rampling and Mark Strong. The plot has shades of The Transporter and Children of Men but I would just watch The Fifth Element as it is more fun.

To say that BABYLON A.D. is a muddled film is to put it mildly. The movie displays evidence of mucho post-production tampering, with chopping editing, plot strands that go nowhere and a general lack of coherence – especially when it comes to the central thrust of the plot. Okay, so it's obvious that this is a journey story, with a group of characters travelling from A to B and getting into all kind of trouble en route, but what happens when we get there? The answer is everything and nothing.

Part of the film has a religious focus, but that seems to have been diluted – perhaps the filmmakers didn't want to offend the primary youth market or emphasise something that might be considered dry or dull. The action scenes, which are what this film is all about, are choppy and slightly disappointing. They're passable, but there's nothing you'd want to rewind or indeed remember three days later. The inclusion of some parkour at one point is wasted thanks to the awful way it's been filmed.

Thankfully, there are some good points. The film has a decent pace and impressive visuals of a derelict, post-apocalyptic world. Vin Diesel puts in what is probably one of his better performances, given that he isn't required to speak very much. Michelle Yeoh is always a welcome presence in any film, but I found her largely wasted here, and her sole scene of ass-kicking is again thwarted by an overactive editor. Melanie Thierry is decent, Gerard Depardieu a grotesque caricature of himself, and Charlotte Rampling's presence is both inexplicable and faintly embarrassing. At least we have Mark Strong and Lambert Wilson putting in solid supporting turns.

At times the film reminded me of THE FIFTH ELEMENT, although it lacks that movie's level of imagination and inventiveness, instead content to go through the motions. The film it's most like in terms of plot, setting and structure is CHILDREN OF MEN, but the Clive Owen starrer is a darn sight better, both in terms of focus and direction so you'd be better off with that instead.

In the near future, mercenary Toorop (Vin Diesel) is hired by Russian mobster Gorsky (Gérard Depardieu) to smuggle Aurora (Mélanie Thierry) from an isolated convent to New York City in six days. They are joined by her guardian Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh). Noelite High Priestess (Charlotte Rampling) eagerly waits for their arrival. Toorop finds his old friend Finn (Mark Strong) to help smuggle them into America.

It's a slightly different dystopia. It holds some promise but director Mathieu Kassovitz lacks the visual confidence to bring it to life. The action is manic without the thrills. The bigger problem is the lack of tension. Despite lots of action, the story is rather bland. I never care about any of the characters or their journey. The three international leads don't have chemistry together. The dialog isn't anything to write home about either. It could use some good jokes and somebody funny to deliver them. Something confusing happens in the second half which loses any chance I have with this movie. This is a waste.