Children of Men (2006)

Children of men is a bleak movie- both visually and thematically. In the near future couples are incapable of having children as females have become infertile and society is in a state of crumbling when a lone black girl(who is pregnant) is the only hope of an antidote. The task of our lead(Clive Owen) is to take her to safety aided by a few others. The film looks bleak because of the saturated colors and England looks like a depressing place. The camerawork and pacing is quite good and a long tracking shot in a car is rather beautiful in its execution. The director would go on to helm Gravity and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban so the style is a constant. This is a good science fiction film more concerned on the social commentary than explosions and effects.

For some reason I didn't watch this movie before. For what I heard about it, I was expecting more dialogue, focusing in the high concept of the movie. But I was surprised with the amount of action, thrilling moments, and persecutions that serve the concept. Normally I would be let down by that focus on action, but this was expertly done from start to finish and we had enough plot and emotion to go with it. Amazing movie. Clive Owen is the boss.

However, now I've got around to watching it - well, half of it - I can see what a predictable cliched film this is.There's nothing new to see here. The film doesn't really seem to have a statement to make and it's just a lot of running around and being politically correct.I'm giving it 3 stars for the acting, which is reasonable if not outstanding, and 1 extra star for having a relatively accurate picture of the future - although I doubt we will ever have see-through screens (why would anyone do that, even if it was possible? Some attempts at showing future technology are really stupid).I got bored by the half-way point and bailed. I can see where it's going but I can't be bothered taking the rest of this boring journey.

Just finished Alfonso Cuarón's "Children of Men", and let me tell you, I did not see something of its scale coming when I loaded it into the DVD player. The first half an hour or so I was kinda confused, I'll admit, but eventually I caught on and got pretty engrossed in it. The acting was so phenomenal. Certain characters, such as the ones played by Clive Owen and Clare-Hope Ashitey stood out. Their performances intensified the story to an extreme point of me having to press pause and take a breather. The cinematography was also very impressive. The use of long shots were extremely effective, and at one point in the movie, a split of blood stayed on the camera lense for several minutes. These kinds of details have the film a unique style so in sync with the story. Something else I noticed that has never stood out to me before was sound mixing. They used layer upon layer upon layer to create this gritty realisticness. The sound department did a great job of bringing certain sounds out at the right time. Combine the sound, eye candy, acting and great story, and they've created not only a solid film, but a really phenomenal one. The plot took unexpected yet appropriate twists that pushed the plot and my emotions along, and I didn't see the events of the last act coming at all. But it all felt right. This was a really really good movie.