Children of Men
It’s been a while since I saw anything at the cinema, so I’ve had to re-watch old movies on telly if I’ve needed a quick film-fix.
Not long ago, Back to the Future 2 was on. That’s set in 2015 and has quite an, errr shall we say, “creative” vision of the future which is used to great effect. Watching that now, it perhaps seems a little far fetched, but when I was a kid in ‘89 I was sure that this was how the World would be nine years from now (guess there’s still time!).
Anyway, Children of Men is set in 2027. With the above still fresh in my mind, I did find my mind wandering off concentrating on it’s vision of the future. Technology-wise, it’s much more believeable than BTTF2.
London buses are still driving about (hell they last for decades) - albeit with LCD adverts on the sides. Cars don’t fly and are still recogniseable, computer games seem to have advanced somewhat, people apparently still use traditional candescent lightbulbs and the tech future is generally pretty damn similar to the present. You can even still play on a fruit machine whilst drinking a Carling down yer local boozer.
Otherwise things are pretty bleak. The entire Earth’s population has become infertile, immigration has spiralled out of control, bombings are a regular event and we’re talking a Blade Runner type existance. And you thought things were bad because of Carling still being available.
What’s the film like though? Well, the takes are long and continuous, the action is at times intense and it’s always beautifully shot (there’s a lot of handheld camera work). You do really get drawn into to it, which is always a good sign. I did have a couple of slight niggles though, in that the big questions I wanted answered weren’t. In fact, they didn’t even attempt to answer them or really give any clues. Hmmph!
The plot is all quite predictable, but it’s still a quality film, although I’m sure a lot of the cinematography will be lost when it’s transferred to the small screen. Unless you happen to have an enormous fook-off great HD TV in your living room with surround sound. But who would have that, eh? Tcha! 8/10.
September 27th, 2006 at 10:25 am
Hey! I like my fook-off great HD TV and surround sound system, it rocks.
I agree it was a great film, amazing looking and very believable…but I too would have liked some better answers than those provided by my name is Michael Caine’s worse joke ever.
I was trying to explain to my bud at work how the film uses long hand held camera takes in the actions scenes and so looked up clips on the net. I found the opening scene with Clive Owen in the coffee shop and couldn’t help buy laugh at something I hadn’t spotted at the time. Seeing that the plot of the film revolves around all women being infertile it did make me chuckle to see, as Clive left the shop, a big sign on the other side of the road advertising “NIAGRA”. He he!