It’s rare to find a film so utterly engrossing that you don’t even realize you’re in a movie theater until the lights go up. Children of Men is one of these elusive films, the tale of a futuristic world thrown into chaos after women mysteriously lose the ability to bear children. With shockingly realistic set designs, striking portrayals of a people on the brink of destruction, and some of the most intensely realized action sequences ever filmed, Children of Men is the most uniquely crafted science fiction masterpiece of the year.
In a futuristic London, the only city remaining that hasn’t destroyed itself from the panic of the nearing extinction of mankind, men scramble to find hope amidst the steadily crumbling war-torn streets. One such man is Theodore Faron (Clive Owen), a listless former activist who has lost touch with humanity save for his jovial friend Jasper (Michael Caine). When a resistance force led by Theo’s ex-wife (Julianne Moore) kidnaps and then bribes him into protecting and transporting the mysteriously pregnant refugee girl Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey), he accepts and embarks on a perilous mission fraught with danger, deception, and possibly the last hope for the future of mankind.
The acting in this intense science fiction thriller borders on perfection. Clive Owen is perfectly cast as the mercenary antihero who has lost his bearings on life after the death of his child. With the sparked interest of seeing his wife again and the desire to protect the fragile hope of humanity in the pregnant refugee girl, he finds a chance for redemption and a new light in the darkening world around him. Julianne Moore and Claire-Hope Ashitey turn in excellent performances as strong female characters burdened with harboring mankind’s last chance at survival and Chiwetel Ejiofor again embodies the antagonist, this time with a menacingly deceptive demeanor. As always, Michael Caine manages to steal every scene he’s in with effortless offbeat comedic charm as Theo’s jocose drug smuggling friend Jasper.
Exemplary editing and handheld camerawork truly sets Children of Men apart from other thrillers. With several first person shots and a camera that closely follows Owen’s moves during much of the action, you’ll feel like you’re right there in the heart of the battle. One extended sequence in particular is especially awe-inspiring as the camera never cuts away from Theo as he treks through a sieged hotel crumbling around him from a tank assault outside. Blood, dirt, and smoke from the ongoing firefight assail the unflinching camera which refuses to turn away during the nerve-wracking single shot.
Though no reasons are given for the disastrous events that mark the beginning of extinction for the human race, the reasons to see this film are abundantly clear. Any fan of an immersing cinematic experience will relish in the realistic war-torn imagery, not-so-futuristic setting rife with present day parallels, and captivating performances from an impressive cast. Children of Men will draw you into its morbidly poignant world of lost souls, and you may not realize you’re in a theater until the end credits roll.
– Joel Massie, MoviePulse
Keith L. Dick says
I watched the special on this movie on the Sci-Fi Channel last night…
It looks like a good movie and definitely one I want to see in the near future…
Lisa in Indiana says
I loved this book and would highly recommend that you read it! I’ll see the movie but, as usual, I’m hoping they don’t wreck this superb story. PD James is an amazing writer who only occaisionally dabbles in sci-fi. But she knows how to write a great story and if they stuck to the story this will be a great movie.
Christopher Huff says
[editors note: SPOILER ALERT! Spoilers contained here]
Did you see the same movie as me? Here is my review….
I don’t know which I hate moreâ€â€a thoroughly depressing piece of political propaganda disguised as a sci-fi movie or the lies they tell you to get you in the theater.
While supposedly “highly anticipated,â€? Children of Men came out of the mysterious fog that is Hollywood hype as a surprise to most people. I was vaguely aware of it because I am a sci-fi geek plugged in to the high tech network of podcasts, websites and newsfeeds that tailor to my kind. Even then, Children of Men did not count as “highly anticipated.â€? To be “highly anticipatedâ€? or “eagerly awaited,â€? means somebodyâ€â€usually a large group of somebodiesâ€â€has to want to see this movie made, and we are not talking about the author and the producers.
Spider-Man 3 is highly anticipated. Ghost Rider is eagerly awaited. Children of Men is not. I won’t even go into the whole “It’s the next Blade Runner� lie they have been batting about. There is not enough space for the expletives I would need to use in order to properly express my feelings on that line of bunk.
That is exactly what Children of Men isâ€â€a line of bunk. It is one big political statement thinly veiled as a science-fiction movie. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth had more science fiction in it than Children of Men, but at least it didn’t try to pawn itself off as the next “Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome.â€?
Children of Men warns us not to prosecute and punish those who would break into a country illegally in order to break more laws or bankrupt the welfare system because one of them might be the first girl to get pregnant in 15 years.
So, the quasi-corrupt terrorists must smuggle the girl out of the country before the fascist government uses her for some dark purpose or just kills her and the child.
Instead of using the vast network of contacts they must have to smuggle in weapons and explosives to get the girl out, they contact one of their ex-boyfriends, Theodore Faron (Clive Owen) to do the dirty work. Still an activist at heart, Faron ends up fleeing the terrorists and the government as his life disintegrates around him. His girlfriend dies, his best friend dies and he dies at the end.
Oh yeah, this is another one of those movies that I am going to warn you about a head of time so you don’t have to cave in to some nagging need to know how it ends. The hero dies at the end in order, not to make a point, but to make sure that you are completely depressed by the end of the movie.
Depressed is all you can be from watching this movie. Crime and illegal immigration are so bad that the government just walls off a whole city and locks them up, even letting them keep their guns, horses, dogs and just about anything else. The skies are clouded with pollution spewing from industrial parks and it is always raining (but that could be because they are in England.). Cattle and crops are burned and rot along side the road for no particular reason, and all the cars are ugly. All of this hopelessness and fatalism is apparently because of the lack of babies and children. Things are so depressing that the government hands out suicide kits along with food rations.
I would comment on the lack-luster acting or poor directing that overused the jittery, “live-in-the-field� splash mud and blood on the camera lens gimmick, but I am just too depressed after watching this movie. I suppose this was some attempt to rally the sci-fi fans and/or other movie-goers to the cause of illegal aliens, but you need to inspire something other than depression if you want to inspire a political uprising.
Consider yourself warned. Don’t play with Children of Men.
-Christopher A. Huff
Myrtle Beach Herald
nick alvarado says
Christopher Huff in his above post obviously can’t tell science fiction from reality, as is shown by him calling global warming science fiction and calling Children of Men non-fiction. Does he even see the paradox in that? The movie ends without robbing the viewer of hope, but emboldens them with the idea that giving all of oneself for the future that is installed in our children, is the only hope man really has. One scene in the movie really shows the awesome magic that this kind of hope really can have.
Children of Men is uncomfortable science fiction, much like 1984 was uncomfortable for the British to stomach. It plays out a future that isn’t so far removed from the present. England didn’t stop rationing food until the 1960’s. They knew what it was like to engage in endless war and collectively suffer under the guidance of a centralized government. The British knew from Germany’s example what it’s like to blame “the foreigner among us” and how its a distraction from the injustice perpetrated by the government and the corporate profiteers.
Why Mr. Huff can’t appreciate these things speaks to a lack of historical perspective. Perhaps with his inability to acknowledge contemporary issues such as global warming, it leaves him hopeless for the future and it’s recognition.
The movie doesn’t explain how the future came to that point, but rather asks the viewer what could have been done earlier, and what can be done when you finally resolve to abandon apathy and indulgence. Michaek Caine’s character becomes a reclusive wizard instead of an active participant, but even he has faith in hope, and becomes an agent of hope.
You’ll see the following movies in this film:
1984 – big time. England, never ending war, government rations, underground movement aka Emmanuel Goldstein – Illegal Immigrants
Escape from New York – anti-hero chosen to carry the hope of humanity out of the prison and to freedom
Code 49 – highly controlled and polluted ‘future world’ that doesn’t explain how it got that way, just says it is so, letting you fill in the blanks.
American Beauty – you’ll see “Game boy” at the dinner table and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Apocalypse Now / The Thin Red Line – the amazing battles and dazed humanity really rock you soul
Serenity – the humor that gets injected at odd moments of violence and anguish, and one actor from the movie is there.
The Shining – oh my god you hear the music from the shining at some point in this movie and you get freaked.
Big Lebowski – Michael Caine is The Dude, or at least his father. Ever see a strawberry cough?
The Matrix – realizing that one person, with a true heart, can do things thought impossible by others, and free the world in the process.
Blade Runner – You see a future world running itself into the ground by all accounts, and the violence that it profits from comes back to bite them. I could see the scene where a smiling Rutger says, “I’ve seen attack ships on fire off of Orion’s Belt”
Go see this movie and realize that it’s a movie about faith, the faith in hope, a hope the size of a mustard seed.
Joe Russo says
-Christopher A. Huff
Interesting perspective, but someone who knows the genres of science fiction and horror well should know that more often than not the best of these films offer intriguing parables for modern political and social issues.
Oh and good rebuttal Nick.
Joe Russo
Editor In Chief
MoviePulse
Christopher Huff says
Okay Nick–
Global Warming is a geological historical fact–like the ice age, and all the previous climate cycles before…However, the Al Gore “version”, the version that misrepresents facts, lies and is generally a hypocritical anti-capitalism/america/individualism movement, is full of more bad science that a Saturday morning cartoon. The Al Gore version tries to tell me that my car has more effect on the environment than Geo-Astrological movement, the epic weather cycles of the planet and and increasing temperature of the sun. Oh…and all the pollution and environmental crimes going on in China, Africa and other nations don’t harm the environment…Just the American and Western industries. (See the Kyoto Accord).
But then Global Warming really has nothing to do with this movie.
As for the movies you list…I can’t speak for Code 49, but all the movies you list have one major difference from Children of Men…They were good.
I thought CoM stunk and was more interested in pushing its politics than telling a good story. Yes, there was a story about faith in this movie, but it was crushed down and buried by the rest of the crap. You did not leave the theater with hope in your heart, like in Matrix or Bladerunner. You left scared and depressed.
Note to Joe,
I understand your point, but CoM used a sledgehammer where most at least used a knife or sharpened spork to drive home their point.
To all — Sorry about the bad quote marks messing with the code…I didn’t realize that when I c&ped the review.
Nick says
Mr. Huff –
Again, please review the science. It’s not that difficult to see that the modern atmospheric levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gases has gone up exponentially, not gradually like other historic climate changes. It is this cumulative world-wide production of GH gases that trap heat inside the atmosphere which endangers our normal way of life. Al Gore was saying that you cannot refute the science and the reality. If scientist can calculate a nuclear explosion they can calculate an ever expanding chemical reaction.
Despite recent cold snaps the average global temperature is again higher than last year and will continue it’s advance as we continue to burn create C02 at even faster rates. It’s like an alcoholic not believing that his accelerating drinking problem could destroy his liver and kill him even though he feels fine, and further rationalizing that he could die of other natural causes just as easily.
On CoM, I think you have to realize that the ending of the movie speaks to the triumph of the tiniest of hopes. I’m sure Christians didn’t think that things would be rosy after their leader was killed like a common criminal, but they’ve come a long way since then. I think you can look at the ending of this movie similarly, great hope from the tiniest of triumphs. In a world full of war mongers, bigots, and oppressive governments, a movie that tries to show how scarily normal all of that can seem and the freedom that comes from trying to make things better tends to open my eyes rather than fill them with smoke.
Nick