Children of Men

Children of Men (2007)

Directed by: Alfonso Cuarón
Written by: Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby based on the novel by P.D. James
Starring: Clive Owen, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Pam Ferris, Michael Caine, Julianne Moore, Peter Mullan, Charlie Hunnam

Go me, I've already honoured my promise to go see this. Wow. This'll be a good year... Anyway, to say that I liked this movie would really be a stretch... it's hard to convey exactly what I do feel about it.

I will say that it is a great movie, just really, really, painfully grim. It's a very dark, apocalyptic science fiction movie, which I wasn't altogether prepared for.

First off, I expected a happy, good time sci-fi adventure. Like Star Wars or The Fifth Element or something else moderately fluffy. I also thought that it was set in outer space.

So it's set in a hideously bleak future where the human race has been sterile for about 20 years. That causes all kinds of problems, including mass depression. I mean, the world's going to end, right? Anyway, then there's this pregnant girl that Colin Clive has to get to safety. And all sorts of horrible stuff happens along the way. People get killed, buildings get exploded. Nasty stuff. Very hard to watch.

It's just so realistic, in a weird way. And the characters were also so real that I felt for them, which was a little upsetting, seeing as practically everybody dies. Spoiler warning. Heh heh heh.

I kind of object to the top billing of Julianne Moore, too. I mean, yeah, she's one of the more famous people in the movie, but she does snuff it pretty early on (spoliers)

Anyway, I found the whole thing kind of shocking. I mean, up until now, I've only really gone to see relatively harmless action movies. Yeah, so Return of the King depressed the hell out of me. It was okay in the end.

On to brighter things.... if possible... I really liked the camera work for some reason. It was very shakey, but that really helped with the whole realism thing. It reminded me a bit of 28 Days Later in a lot of ways. The sort of grim, feeling of impending doom. And the sort of raw, almost unpredictable feel to it. Like you really don't know what's going to happen, and it might not have a happy ending at all.

I guess it sort of does, but not really. It doesn't feel happy. More spoilers.

It's quite well written, too, having a few funny lines out of Michael Caine, mostly. They sort of get cancelled out by the crushing despair, though...

And I couldn't help but think that it was made by the same guy who did Harry Potter. I mean, come on! Yes, it was the grimmest and most depressing of all the Harry Potters to date (and by far my favourite), but dammit, there's still something so innocent and pure about it... I guess.

It's a pretty good first movie of the year, though. Especially considering that last year's was Underworld: Evolution. (Things only got worse after that, too. X-Men 3, Dead Man's Chest, The Da Vinci Code. Shudder) Yeah, okay, I went to see City Lights too, but that hardly counts.

Anyway, I think this should get nominated for an Oscar. At least one. It deserves one, even if it's just for sound or something. It's a very, very good movie, if you can stand overwhelming depression.

I found I didn't really walk out of the theatre laughing my ass off and babbling about giant tentacles, as usual. I felt kind of sad and tired, but with the feeling that I hadn't just wasted ten bucks on a crappy movie. I felt like I could actually shell out ten more bucks without feeling too bad. Money wise, anyway. I'm not sure I really want to risk depressing myself further.

Also, I've had the song Ruby Tuesdays playing in my head all day.

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