If movies are supposed to provide 90 minutes of escape from the dullness of our everyday lives, "Babylon A.D." does exactly what it is supposed to.

Director Mathieu Kassovitz establishes the feel of his film's world immediately. Eastern Europe. It's the future. Lawlessness seems to be the general theme and we are soon panning along, following a hooded Vin Diesel in the pouring rain. Virtually everyone he passes is armed, and many try to sell him a weapon. Diesel doesn't say a word until he finds the small Asian man he's looking for, whom he then pulls out of a truck and points a gun at.

He pulls the trigger and nothing happens. "You sold me a gun that doesn't work!" Diesel growls at the man. With that he's off, stalking back into the rain, mission apparently accomplished.

We get it. Diesel's a badass. As Kassovitz continues to follow Diesel along the dirty, torn up streets, we see him buy a dead rabbit and an onion from a street vender. Dinner. On the way up the concrete steps to his tattered apartment, he snags some cigarettes from a kid sitting on the stairs. "I owe you," says Diesel.

For lack of a better word, it is a very cool setup. Despite my weariness upon entering "another Vin Diesel" flick, I immediately forgot about my doubts. The world Kassovitz introduces us to in the first 20 minutes is vaguely familiar, yet absolutely fantastical and futuristic. In fact, through to the last scenes of "Babylon A.D.," it's the universe Kassovitz has created that is the highlight of the movie. The photography is always interesting and the scenery fabulous.

As for the characters and the plot ... well, the photography is fantastic!

Vin Diesel plays Toorop, a mercenary. Toorop is a rather simple dude. He survives. Kill or be killed; naturally, he kills. Actually, Toorop is the one character I actually understood. He's offered a transporting job from an even uglier than normal Gerard Depardieu. He takes it.

That, sadly, is about the point where the plot begins to fail. Toorop's "cargo" is a girl (Melanie Thierry). All we know is that she's special. Soon we discover she's part psychic, part Mila Jovovich in "The Fifth Element."

Accompanying her is Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh). From this point on in plot explanation, there ceases to be much cohesiveness. Let's just say there's fanatical religion, Immaculate Conception, and death without actual death involved.

Confused?

Yeah, me too.

The acting is fine. Diesel is gruff, yet decent at heart. Yeoh, as always, exudes nobility. Thierry pouts a lot, freaks out even more, and then without warning shows off kung fu skills that the crew from "The Matrix" would envy. Action sequences are frequent and although sometimes shot a little too up-close, they're effective.

What I would be curious to find out is what the discussion was like on set when they were filming the final scenes of "Babylon A.D." Maybe tough guy Diesel suddenly woke up and decided the movie had to end on a warm, sappy note. Or maybe the story the script is based on is to blame for an ending that is a square peg to the rest of the movie's round hole.

I don't know.

Plot-wise, "Babylon A.D." starts out OK and then goes gently downhill for the duration of its running time before finally stopping at "Wow, that is really dumb." However, if you can put that aside and just enjoy the action, Vin Diesel's general badass-ness, and the wonderfully futuristic world Kassovitz has created, it's a decent 90 minute escape from reality.