It's 2027, yet it doesn't look any different. There's global human infertility and so the human race is going to die out. Sound much like every other dystopian/apocalyptic film? Looks the same anyway. It's just something to watch, I knew it would be. I'll admit I'm drawn like a magnet to work of this nature, but only in literary form. Earth Abides, The Road, Canticle for Leibowitz, The Drowned World... Even that one film about zombies sounds like an OK book, considering it draws on themes that actually connote to substance.
It's a very straight forward storyline. One woman ends up pregnant, and the protagonist runs about whilst being shot at. Apparently there's all sorts of intelligent themes present in the film: hope, faith, contemporary references, religion. The director even claims to have used The Battle of Algiers as a model for social reconstruction for production and even read literature for philosophical and social frameworks! Wow -- makes this film sound like it'd be really sophisticated, deep and intelligent doesn't it?
The more I read, the more farcical I think the film is. It reminds me of I, Legend, Will Smith, 28 Days Later, and other films that concentrate more on action rather than anything else. The issue is, this was a straight forward blockbuster, with phoney acting, explosions, racing through emotional scenes, keeping you on the edge of your seat throughout. The plot was completely irrelevant. I think the Harry Potter film he directed had more emotional merit than this, but then I personally prefer wizards to the end of the human race anyway. Hopefully, when the video game Children of Men is released, the charactisation will be digital enhanced too!
The director didn't even read the book.
1 comment:
I did read the book by PD James, I reviewed it at:
http://caffeineandchaptersreviews.blogspot.com/2010/07/children-of-men-p-d-james.html
I quite liked the movie, but I thought it could be so much better and I didn't like the ending. The book is very different.
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