And like any good dog who’s abuse is too far-gone, it’s time to take this poor rabid mutt out back with the shotgun and shovel.

As an obituary for what some might consider just another dead dog, it seems time, amid our rapidly globalizing world view toward cinema, to reflect on how and why such original intentions to take a chance and recreate the world of cinema are being chained to a post in Hollywood’s backyard every time they have a panic attack that their prize bitch won’t come at their command.

Kudos to Vin Diesel for his tireless efforts to deliver a new wave of sci-fi action, playing out his own fantasies of role-playing stoic warrior heroes that find redemption in slandering then saving damsels in distress.

Babylon, like its name, often presents carefully detailed, well shot spectacles, hinting at that epic grandeur and mystery so alluring to movie land.

This also plays to its disadvantage. The storyline is choppy to the point of utter confusion, leaving audiences at its Taipei press screening laughing in their seats.

Condolensces to BAD’s director Mathieu Kassovitz, who has finally washed his hands of the film. He set out to do things differently, and like many a creative talent with hopes to revitalize an endangered sub-culture tradition, Kassovitz has found himself embroiled in a Hollywood dogfight with the pitbull-equivalent of distributors - and not exactly forward-thinking as its name alludes — Twentieth Century Fox.

Kassovitz said “I’m very unhappy with the film. I never had the 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.”

The sci-fi actioner, set in the near future, stars Vin Diesel as the exiled mercenary Toorop, tasked with a do-or-die mission of transporting a mysterious young woman from a cult in the wastes of Central Asia to the bright lights of New York.

Though the locations span from the ghettos of Russia, through snowed woodlands of Alaska to a dazzling NYC, with stunning broad skyward shots and endearing moments under the northern lights, shooting was allegedly fraught with trouble delivered from Fox, which apparently went from bad to worse in post-production.

Fox allegedly interfered with the original edit, cutting 15 minutes from Kassovitz’s version which he claims now makes the film confusing.

Originally he had a clear idea of the movie’s central message; “[it’s] supposed to teach us that the education of our children will mean the future of our planet,” he explains, but somewhere down the road, Fox lost its nerve and feared the message wasn’t sellable. “All the action scenes had a goal: They were supposed to be driven by either a metaphysical point of view or experience for the characters... instead, parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24.”

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