YNOT at the Movies

Tonight, I went to see "Babel" with Peter. Despite its star power and acclaimed filmmakers, it's a very long disappointing film.

In "Babel," an American tourist is shot randomly in Morocco when two kids are playing with a rifle their dad just bought for hunting. Since the entire world is on the verge at this moment, this is immediately regarded as a terrorist attack, and a man hunt for terrorists begins.

I wonder what if it's other way around. If a Morocco kid gets shot, will a terrorist attack is assumed and an investigation of the same scale begins?

The film develops four plots simultaneously. But the four plots in three continents are all connected eventually. Well sort of, with very bad luck. The plot happening in Japan is the most bizarre and most irrelevant among the four.

In this film, I can see similar structure as in "Crash" or "Syriana," without the compactness and engaging quality of those films.

This film drags on and tried very hard to stretch the four plots together. Some of the scenes linger around as if the director is wondering where to go next.

The film has its ambitious, but it has never reached to its potential and delivered the big idea in the filmmaker's mind.

My rating: 5 out of 10.