Echoes of Babylon

Critic Reviews

In Michelangelo Antelope's 'Echoes of Babylon,' one finds a film that, despite its ambitious melding of war-time drama and the sci-fi genre, ultimately struggles under the weight of its own grandiosity. Robert DeNiroli delivers a performance that is, at its core, a derivative pastiche of his previous roles, albeit with a commendable gravitas befitting the era it portrays. Bill Pexton, on the other hand, imbues his treasure hunter with a certain joie de vivre that is as commendable as it is misplaced in the narrative's bleak landscape. Robin Williams-pear's portrayal of the CIA agent is both a tour de force and a pedagogic exercise in overacting, teetering on the brink of caricature. The PG rating is, perhaps, the film's most astute decision, allowing the thematic exploration of survival and the value of cultural heritage to reach a broader audience without the encumbrance of gratuitous violence. However, the film's tagline, 'In the shadows of war, the greatest treasure is survival,' reads like an overwrought platitude that the screenplay, unfortunately, does not rise above. The cinematography, while occasionally striking, is often marred by an overreliance on sepia-toned nostalgia. Antelope's direction is both meticulous and pedantic, with a penchant for over-explanation that leaves little to the audience's imagination. In sum, 'Echoes of Babylon' is an exercise in excess, an overambitious film that could have benefited from a more restrained hand and a less didactic approach.