Children of Men

*Note: This is one of the reviews I posted on my old blog, and I'm now moving it to this one

Children of Men is a rather interesting film. If I had to compare it to something, I’d have to say Half-Life 2, and in more than one way.

In the film, humanity is essentially screwed. No human has been born for 20 years, and there is only one functioning government left, in the United Kingdom. This government is oppressive and Orwellian, imposing harsh immigration laws on immigrants. The main character, Theo, played by Clive Owen, is a former activist, who meets his estranged wife, Julian Taylor, who gives him a mission, to transport a fugitive named Kee to the ocean, where she can be picked up by a ship, operated by an organization, called Humanity First. Nobody even knows for sure if it exists, but they are the only ones looking for a way to allow humans to reproduce again.

After a series of events during which an important character gets killed, Kee reveals to Theo that she’s pregnant, the first woman in 20 years to do so. Because of this, Theo goes from a guy just doing the job he was promised money for, to actively taking care of Kee.

What follows is a series of betrayals, deaths, and incredibly intense action sequences. The film is shot in a documentary style, most of the time using a handheld camera style. This would be distracting in many films, but in this film, it works well, especially during the chaotic action scenes. The other interesting thing about the way the film was shot is its long shots. Several of the action scenes take place in one camera shot. Weirdly, I didn’t notice it most of the time. It was just really immersive. Now, we know these were done partially with post-production wizardry, but it’s still really impressive considering just how much was done live, on set. The longest of these is a 454 second shot near the end of the film, of a battle between rebels and the government forces. That’s 7 and a half minutes. Very cool.

Back to the story. One of the things that interested me, or at least that I found different, was that, unlike in the other dystopian film, V for Vendetta, we don’t really see the government. Sure, we see that they’re the villains, rounding up and deporting refugees, and torturing prisoners, but we don’t really see the government itself. V for Vendetta, and other dystopian films and books, generally show the viewers just how evil the government is, how they’re conspiring against the people, and so on, but here, they’re only mentioned, and we don’t have an actual target for our hate against the villains. In other films and other dystopian works, the government always has a figurehead, some “leader”, and here there’s nothing. Another example of this is 

[MAJOR SPOILERS] 

in the final battle, now that Kee’s baby has been born, and Theo is leading them out of the building under siege, EVERYONE stops shooting. Rebels, and soldiers. Theo, Kee, and the baby all just walk out, through the battle. Soldiers and rebels staring at her baby, in awe, showing that the government wasn’t really fully in control of them. As soon as they leave the building, though, the shooting instantly restarts, and the soldiers destroy the building quickly.

[/MAJOR SPOILERS]

There are other issues mentioned in the film, including environmental issues, free speech, and racism, but I don’t have too much space left, really.

The acting is pretty good in the film, but nothing really jumps out at me as all that impressive, except Michael Caine. Oh, Michael Caine. He plays a sort of hippie... stoner... political activist... thing, and he’s great. Funny, and clever, and intelligent, and real. I completely forgot it was him, and just thought of him as that character. Really great casting, because it goes completely against what I think of when I see Michael. Except maybe in The Man Who Would Be King.

So, overall, pretty damn good. I highly recommend watching it. Interesting, but not perfect. However, it’s not really a movie I’m going to watch more than a couple of times, like I did with V for Vendetta.