Children of Men - your thoughts?

[Sawyer]

I didn't read the book and I loved it. I was able to fill in the holes and it didn't bother me and I didn't see them as holes but just part of a story that was too large to have it boiled down to 2 + hours. What I loved was the attention to detail every room had a smell a texture and I felt like I knew these people. My wife and I loved it but both of us thought it would be hard to recommend to anyone.

[studioDIM]

hehe elf...
ok, lets put the VFX, the camera work and other fx aside. This movie has a story... women have stopped getting pregnent...why? no one knows. Why did this one woman get pregnent? no one knows. What is the human project? no one knows.

Women stopped getting pregnant because of state enforced "fertility tests" (advert in the movie). Michael Caine does make a few hypothesis on it, but they're treated like plausible fantasies by himself.
She says she didn't know how she got pregnant (she doesn't know the father) but sex seems throughout the movie as one very plausible niche of fun people can still have.
Nature does do that when reproduction is at stake (see endangered species where females self-conceive: she also makes a joke about her being a virgin).
The human project is a "safe harbor" and a way to get fertility back to humanity, and a "community" ("It's the human project real?" "it'd better be!").
The ship that rescues her it's called "Tomorrow".
What else is needed?
I loved the movie deeply, and would recommend it to anyone that thinks ideals still have some power, or love strawberry flavoured grass .

Lele

[unknown]

changing the subject

watch 'primer'. a bugjet film done by a few guys in texas. Its really really nice, and an inspiration on what you can get done with no money.

again its a plot that takes some thought, so im sure it wont be for everyone, but it was my most favourite film this year until Children of Men.

[AJ Jefferies]

I watched this last night - one of the best films I've seen in years.

In fact the only real flaw with it was the scene where you have some fairly second rate actors discussing what to do in the farmhouse. Other than that it was all just excellent...

Excellent.

[RE:FORM_STUDIOS]

Thanks for the link. I was totally amazed by the camera work they achieved in that film, and couldnt work out how they managed to film that sequence... or the end fight sequence either (sadly no discussion of that shot in the article).

I am a total sucker for long takes ("Funny Games" anyone?), especially when they include loads of effects and extras.... the logistics must have been unbelievable. That end sequence was insane!

I did think the plot was a little shallow.... but the attention to detail in the enviromnent and the camera work carried it for me. I hate the lead actor, and in the scene with the birth I felt he destroyed the gravity of it for me... and the baby was cgi!? amazing fx again.

As for the cause of the childlessness.... I thought it was a global phenomenon, so how could it have been a state enforced problem?

[dapeter]

Actually I think they alluded to what caused the worldwide infertility. The film takes place in 2027, with the youngest person being 18. So, the last child born was in 2009.

In another scene they passingly say that Clive Owen's son had died in 2008 during the great flu pandemic. So it seems to me like either the flu itself, or a vaccine/medicine ended up causing the infertility. I'd say with the overall tone of the movie it's more likely that a flu vaccine caused it.

[studioDIM]

As for the cause of the childlessness.... I thought it was a global phenomenon, so how could it have been a state enforced problem?

Well, there sure is a "shadow-new world order" in place, in the movie.
Notice how by the end the fighter planes that bomb the uprising to smithereens come from the side of France, and go bomb in the UK.
Whenever have France and the UK been firendly enough to share military bases and operations?
As it happened throughout the world at the same exact time, which rules well out the natural cause, which would spread in stages, rather than a single outburst.
The nun talks about a few miscarriages happening in the UK, and her calling Sidney, and the same is happening there.
A state-enforced fertility check, under paena, would just be perfect and lead to an almost instant result.
I'd say, though, that whatever the source of it, the writer and director managed all to well in one department: raising discussion about the issues