Community Forums => General Chat => Topic started by: TrueNerd on January 24, 2007, 05:34:33 PM
Title: Children of Men
Post by: TrueNerd on January 24, 2007, 05:34:33 PM
If you like good movies, you need to watch this immediately. It's technically a futuristic sci-fi flick (like Serenity!) but, more accurately, it's a commentary on today's political topics and what horrible things could happen if things keep going like this. The story is told in awesome fashion and the camera work is among the best my eyes have ever witnessed. Drops of blood on camera camera lenses for the effing win. Awesome, awesome sh*t right here.
Title: RE:Children of Men
Post by: Svevan on January 25, 2007, 03:09:22 PM
I found the film to be successful on a visceral level, but I was disappointed that the majority of the commentary was anti-government dystopia - the premise, not the setting, are of major importance here, but Cuaron seems to care more about the latter. Cuaron's films have always been focused on their locations, and I think his ability to place the viewer in a real, but imagined, place is noteworthy. Both Y Tu Mama Tambien and Prisoner of Azkaban share these great qualities. But Y Tu Mama Tambien was simultaneously about growing older AND rural Mexican poverty, while Children of Men is about the government oppressing people and pretty much nothing else.
Spoilers: The newborn baby is trucked around the movie as a vibrant living image, one that impacts the world only in terms of visual shock - after this, the child is sent off to a mysterious organization that hopes to reproduce the reproduction, becoming yet another plot device with zero significance. Perhaps Cuaron didn't care about the distinctly religious story, or the human elements - instead he focuses far too much on political futures that become mere obstacles to the plot-messengers (Theo and Kee) as they work very hard to get the baby to her destination: a buoy? What is the significance of this amazing act? Why the long struggle for a baby? Theo's sacrifice and Kee's miraculous birth are treated as socially important, rather than spiritually insightful. This dystopian future seems poised to examine what makes us human, why humanity is so important to the Earth, and what significance WE have on our planet - instead, it is merely about a bunch of people screwing up, and one guy working very hard to get one baby to an organization we know nothing about.
But it sure looked DAMN awesome.
Title: RE: Children of Men
Post by: matt oz on January 25, 2007, 04:35:48 PM
Cuaron made me fear the Dementors. For realz.
Title: RE: Children of Men
Post by: ShyGuy on January 25, 2007, 05:16:04 PM
Yay! Evan is back with movie insights!
Title: RE: Children of Men
Post by: TrueNerd on January 25, 2007, 06:35:53 PM
I entirely admit that I could be overlooking the film's flaws because of the way it made my eyes sing.
