Children of Men

[nellhows]

Hey guys,

If you haven't had a chance to see this, go see it! It is a perfect mutant film. Science fiction, action, Michael Caine as a hippie pot grower! It's like V for Vendetta (which I liked) except with some subtlety. Anyway, it might be my favorite film of '06/'07.

What did people who have seen it think about it?

[sirgallahad2]

I thought it was the most accurate portrayal of a future without hope ever made. They killed off so many people in this movie and I swear to god the last 20 minutes was better than "saving private ryan" . Did anyone else notice the video image of New York city with a mushroom cloud over it during the "Britain Soldiers on" video?

[Spiderdancer]

Oh, good, now I know not to see it.

I hate Orwellian futures with grim endings.

[duckie]

Lissa and I saw it over the weekend, and both were impressed with it. Perhaps she'll work up a review at some point...

[aargmematey]

I wasn't sure what I felt about this movie after I first saw it. Eventually, I think I decided that I didn't like it. I just couldn't connect to any of the characters. Plus, the CG baby was incredibly distracting. And weird.

Overall, my favorite part about it was the way it depicted the future as not being overly futuristic. Also, I liked how they went about giving the exposition, through news reports, and commercials. That was well played, Children of Men. Well played indeed.

[DTH]

Yo!

Children of Men was ace. I really recommend it.

This is an example where a combination of good acting and superior cinematography can raise an average film to great heights.

The plot is fairly clichéd if you've seen/read any amount of sci-fi and so accordingly, you might feel it isn't anything special but remember this is an English film, so not too many big budget efforts like this around and, more importantly, the last 20 minutes or so is absolutely one of the finest pieces of film I've seen in a very long time.

[sarahbot]

SPOILERS WELL AHEAD. Just don't read any of this if you haven't seen the movie, because I wouldn't want to spoil any of it.

This movie hit me hard. I blathered on and on (and on and on...) about it's effect on me in my blog, but I'll try to be concise here. I have one criticism of this movie, and that's the exposition Michael Caine spouts. Other than that, this was stupendous, surprising, fantastic.

I'll second everyone's remarks about how well the facts of the world's new makeup were conveyed to the audience. In particular, the way England was safe reminded me a bit of a book I just read called World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Wars, in the interesting way they tackled facts head-on in a threat like this.

There was one shot that was really, really cool. Once Theo and Kee get into Bexhill and are found again by Luke and his thugs, most of them take Kee away and leave Theo to be shot. Then Theo gets away and he has to find Kee and the baby. I'm not sure when the shot starts, but I first noticed it around when Theo runs around the corner and into a bus. Then he runs across the street, dodging the fighters, constantly finding whatever minute cover he can. Then he runs into the building and through it and up the levels, and the shot doesn't stop until he finds Kee. It's got to be at least three or four minutes long, and it's unbelievable. I'm imagining this one camera guy and maybe a sound guy(?) running around behind Clive Owen through this scene, and all the explosions and shots going off, and people screaming and crying . . . a logistical nightmare and an artistic dream. I wonder, did anyone else notice this shot?

[sirgallahad2]

I noticed how it was all one massive, incredibly well done shot. For Theo, a civilian with I would assume, no military training, that man can manuever his way through gun fire and find cover incredibly well. the whole movie was truly spellbinding to me. Just when I thought I had seen it all, this movie comes along and surprises me. Somebody needs to give Alfonso Cuaron a War film STAT!!!!

[pfrsue]

Agreed. That long shot was absolutely great. I did notice that, but you know, the whole film had that total sense of... immediacy. I was really, really sucked into it.

In fact, I'd very much like to see CoM again - and I don't say that very often about newer movies.

[aargmematey]

Dangit, was I the only person on Earth that didn't like this movie?

Allll by myyyseeeellf! Don't wanna be...