NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.childrenofmen.net/

I went to see it today, and I thought it was awesome. For the informed viewer, there were so many interesting little caveats, interesting extrapolations from current trends and so on.

Even for the less informed, the final battle scenes were very, very good. Indeed, the whole things was made very well, there were many little details in every camera angle, always something to look at.

Have you seen it? What did you think? Movie of the year, perhaps?

Well, if it's good, I feel better about the fact I'm going to get dragged to see it now. :p

The premise is a bit stupid though. How can people just stop reproducing? The Europeans might choose to, though :D

I've never even heard of this movie. Although it looks like it's not coming out until Christmas (at least here in the states). I'll definitely have to keep an eye out for it though...

It is pretty good overall, but the ending was too Hollywood. I did like that scene that was done in one take near the end - I only realised about halfway through it that there hadn't been a cut.

Not movie of the year, it's not that good. Best film I've seen this year was Brick, followed by District 13.

Oh yeah, and Michael Caine's character wasn't used as well as he could have been. He just seemed to be there for some cheap jokes about hippies.

http://www.childrenofmen.net/

I went to see it today, and I thought it was awesome. For the informed viewer, there were so many interesting little caveats, interesting extrapolations from current trends and so on.

Even for the less informed, the final battle scenes were very, very good. Indeed, the whole things was made very well, there were many little details in every camera angle, always something to look at.

Have you seen it? What did you think? Movie of the year, perhaps?
...from what I can tell of the story, it sounds quite intriguing. Plus, British accents are always fun.

The premise is a bit stupid though. How can people just stop reproducing? The Europeans might choose to, though :D
All the women become infertile because of some sort of virus, or pollution, I can't remember which.

All the women become infertile because of some sort of virus, or pollution, I can't remember which.
They didn't say in the movie, though they might have in the book.

The ending, yeah, there was no real resolution, was there. That would've been its major weakness in my view.

All the women become infertile because of some sort of virus, or pollution, I can't remember which.

Yeah... somehow... I can't see that happening.

They didn't say in the movie, though they might have in the book.

The ending, yeah, there was no real resolution, was there. That would've been its major weakness in my view.
Yeah, I think that is from the book. Doesn't make too much difference, though.

Yeah... somehow... I can't see that happening.

**summoning the spirit of Tarantino**

Haven't you ever heard of Suspension of Disbelief ? :)

Yeah... somehow... I can't see that happening.
I bet you never complained at Star Wars, though, did you?

**summoning the spirit of Tarantino**

Haven't you ever heard of Suspension of Disbelief ? :)

Nope. I suspend nothing. NAH-SING!

I bet you never complained at Star Wars, though, did you?

Star Wars was meant to be unbelievable.

Star Wars was meant to be unbelievable.
Right, and a film where the British government is more right wing than the Nazis and the country seems to be a Daily Mail reader's wet dream isn't...oh...wait...I see your point. ;)

Right, and a film where the British government is more right wing than the Nazis and the country seems to be a Daily Mail reader's wet dream isn't...oh...wait...I see your point. ;)

I just can't take a movie this serious with a premise like that... seriously.

Yep, it looks really interesting. It's on my to see list.

I just can't take a movie this serious with a premise like that... seriously.
It's a metaphor, not a documentary.

Think about it: People are having no more children, the world abroad is going to the crapper, immigrants get blamed. And the possible solution to the crisis? Immigrants.

Don't tell me you can't see the message behind this. And even if not...it's still a very well shot movie, worth those six bucks or so just for the visual experience.

It's a metaphor, not a documentary.

Think about it: People are having no more children, the world abroad is going to the crapper, immigrants get blamed. And the possible solution to the crisis? Immigrants.

Don't tell me you can't see the message behind this. And even if not...it's still a very well shot movie, worth those six bucks or so just for the visual experience.

I agree. I enjoyed it, although It's a shame Jasper had to die. He was funny...

The premise is a bit stupid though. How can people just stop reproducing? The Europeans might choose to, though :D

Pretty easily, actually. Most mammals simply stop to reproduce once the population grows too large for their area. It's one of the effects of social stress.

http://www.childrenofmen.net/

I went to see it today, and I thought it was awesome. For the informed viewer, there were so many interesting little caveats, interesting extrapolations from current trends and so on.

Even for the less informed, the final battle scenes were very, very good. Indeed, the whole things was made very well, there were many little details in every camera angle, always something to look at.

Have you seen it? What did you think? Movie of the year, perhaps?

I've seen it a few weeks ago and was very impressed. I've seen a few good movies this year, and Children of Men is among those at the very top of my list.

Pretty easily, actually. Most mammals simply stop to reproduce once the population grows too large for their area. It's one of the effects of social stress.

But it doesn't happen when the species is dying out, like in the film.

But it doesn't happen when the species is dying out, like in the film.

Only they're not dying out, are they? The last birth was 18 years ago, not even one generation.
A population will normally take around 3-4 generations to get back to viable population numbers.

The problem that they're having is not that they're actually dying out, it's that they fear extinction. And that they let this fear dictate their lives and politics.

If the movie had had a "proper" ending, I would have been very disappointed. The ambiguity was just enough that you could draw your own conclusions. It ranks as the best film I've seen all year and believe me when I say I've probably seen a hell of a lot more movies than most people.

To be fair, I haven't watched "The Wind that Shakes the Barley", "The Fountain" or "Inland Empire" yet, so this may not end up my absolute annual favourite.

I watched the trailer a while back, it seemed to look decent enough.

If the movie had had a "proper" ending, I would have been very disappointed. The ambiguity was just enough that you could draw your own conclusions. It ranks as the best film I've seen all year and believe me when I say I've probably seen a hell of a lot more movies than most people.

To be fair, I haven't watched "The Wind that Shakes the Barley", "The Fountain" or "Inland Empire" yet, so this may not end up my absolute annual favourite.
I may have seen fewer films than you, but I've clearly seen better ones. Brick, District 13 and The Departed are all better than Children of Men, as were Cars and V for Vendetta. Pierrepoint, 13, Jarhead and A Cock & Bull Story were also better than CoM.

If the movie had had a "proper" ending, I would have been very disappointed. The ambiguity was just enough that you could draw your own conclusions. It ranks as the best film I've seen all year and believe me when I say I've probably seen a hell of a lot more movies than most people.

To be fair, I haven't watched "The Wind that Shakes the Barley", "The Fountain" or "Inland Empire" yet, so this may not end up my absolute annual favourite.

"The Wind that Shakes the Barley" is going to be a lot of competitions for this movie...

I may have seen fewer films than you, but I've clearly seen better ones. Brick, District 13 and The Departed are all better than Children of Men, as were Cars and V for Vendetta. Pierrepoint, 13, Jarhead and A Cock & Bull Story were also better than CoM.Eh, to each his own.

Although seriously man, "V for Vendetta"?. It was ok, but hardly one of the better movies of the year. The silly "think of every word that rhymes with V" monologue alone pushed it out of the running in a year glutted with pretty awesome movies. That said, I'm a fanatical fan of the original graphic novel so take my opinion with a pinch of salt. ;)

Ah, and I'm totally exhausted from editing for days on end these past few weeks, so you'll have to forgive my uncustomary arrogance.

Eh, to each his own.

Although seriously man, "V for Vendetta"?. It was ok, but hardly one of the better movies of the year. The silly "think of every word that rhymes with V" monologue alone pushed it out of the running in a year glutted with pretty awesome movies. That said, I'm a fanatical fan of the original graphic novel so take my opinion with a pinch of salt. ;)

Ah, and I'm totally exhausted from editing for days on end these past few weeks, so you'll have to forgive my uncustomary arrogance.

I haven't read the actual graphic novel so I can't comment, but I'd say that films are rarely good as the books they come from, with only a few exceptions. That said, I did enjoy it, though.

The premise is a bit stupid though. How can people just stop reproducing? The Europeans might choose to, though :D

People dont stop reproducing. They become infertile. Diffrent thing

Was this movie playing last year? Or did it come out earlier in the UK?

But it doesn't happen when the species is dying out, like in the film.

You dont seem to understand. They become infertile, IE they are having sex, but the sex isn't resulting in children for one reason or another. Like the trailer says, some say genetic experiments, some say pollution, etc... they dont know why its happened.

Was this movie playing last year? Or did it come out earlier in the UK?
It came out a couple of months ago in the UK, I think. Six weeks, maybe.

Eh, to each his own.

Although seriously man, "V for Vendetta"?. It was ok, but hardly one of the better movies of the year. The silly "think of every word that rhymes with V" monologue alone pushed it out of the running in a year glutted with pretty awesome movies. That said, I'm a fanatical fan of the original graphic novel so take my opinion with a pinch of salt. ;)

Ah, and I'm totally exhausted from editing for days on end these past few weeks, so you'll have to forgive my uncustomary arrogance.
I think the difference between V for Vendetta and Children of Men is that I was able to believe the political situation more in V than in CoM. But yes, the 'V' monologues were rather irritating.

People dont stop reproducing. They become infertile. Diffrent thing

Nah, I think he was to point score against those evil liberal commie Europeans who have legal abortions. Oh noes!

The premise is a bit stupid though. How can people just stop reproducing?

Maybe there's a crisis in beer production.

I left the cinema pretty much unable to string a conversation with my girlfriend together until I got home, about half an hour's walk later.

The visual style is highly realistic most of the time, and becomes more so when the most horrifying things are happening, such as the [SPOILERS] car being attacked by bandits and the filmed-in-one-go civil war sequence at the end, which... think them through. Just watch it and imagine how it'd feel to be that guy in that place and see if it doesn't shock you.

The premise isn't believable. It's not meant to be; this is a deliberate stylistic decision, and there's good precedent. Bram Stoker didn't try to explain Dracula in scientific terms (though many incarnations of vampire media, like Underworld, have tried now), and Mary Shelley deliberately avoided any detailed explanation of how Dr. Frankenstein's monster came to life. As such I don't feel it actually detracts from the film; Children of Men should be seen as less of a documentary and more of a thought experiment.

The colour-filtering is one of a very few concessions the film makes to the genre of "movie". To be honest, it presents a story, but there's no formulaic beginning, middle, end, cut into distinct sequences and marked with music or changes in direction or whatever. The movie is a relentless sequence of events; this guy's life after he finds out the secret that could save the world. That's it. A main character dies, and there's no swelling music or dying confession or screams of "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" There's just the aftermath; his friends left in a wood asking what the fuck he just died for.

The low-tech sense of everything helps this along. It's interesting to note that in the fatalism of a world with no foreseeable future there's no anti-emissions laws anymore, and all the future-tech has gone into advertising, cars and weaponry, while standards of living are obviously going to hell in a Hackney rickshaw. Also, it contains a brilliant bit of graffiti: Last One To Die Please Turn Out The Lights scrawled across a billboard. When random bandits fly screaming out of the woods, they try to stop their prey with a flaming car and a log roadblock, but there's a HUD collision-sensor on the car warning them they're about to hit it. In that sense, it's got some of the most realistic portrayals of future-tech I've seen yet. None of this Minority Report gorgeous-but-wrist-breaking-operating-system nonsense.

I left the cinema pretty much unable to string a conversation with my girlfriend together until I got home, about half an hour's walk later.

The visual style is highly realistic most of the time, and becomes more so when the most horrifying things are happening, such as the [SPOILERS] car being attacked by bandits and the filmed-in-one-go civil war sequence at the end, which... think them through. Just watch it and imagine how it'd feel to be that guy in that place and see if it doesn't shock you.
I think the problem I had with the film in this respect is that I could quite easily not imagine how it'd feel to be Theo. It never sucked me into the story in the same way that (for example) V for Vendetta did. Although V... had its flaws, at least it was able to do that for me.

The colour-filtering is one of a very few concessions the film makes to the genre of "movie". To be honest, it presents a story, but there's no formulaic beginning, middle, end, cut into distinct sequences and marked with music or changes in direction or whatever. The movie is a relentless sequence of events; this guy's life after he finds out the secret that could save the world. That's it. A main character dies, and there's no swelling music or dying confession or screams of "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" There's just the aftermath; his friends left in a wood asking what the fuck he just died for.
No formulaic beginning/middle/end? How about this (here be spoilers):

The 'beginning' introduces Theo and gives some background on him up to the point where he is abducted by the Fishes, or possibly to the point where he agrees to help the Fishes.

The 'middle' is where Theo finds out about Kee and is involved with the Fishes, and then against the Fishes, in helping her escape to the Human Project.

The 'end' is from the time they arrive at Bexhill onwards. It even has a climactic fight scene with a short emotional part afterwards!

All the women become infertile because of some sort of virus, or pollution, I can't remember which.They didn't say in the movie, though they might have in the book.

The ending, yeah, there was no real resolution, was there. That would've been its major weakness in my view.

I just read the book last month. It doesn't specify what causes the infertility in the book, though it does say that it is the males who are infertile- ie, it's a sperm problem. The problem with that is that scientists have already succeeded in making a viable zygote using two eggs. I mean, not ideal, but if humans were dying out, it would probably be possible with current technology to produce female babies from viable female gametes only, without the need for males.


Anyway, just from watching the trailer, the movie is totally different from the book in plot, atmosphere, and overall tone. The England created in the book is actually one of extreme order, extreme sanitation, and extreme comfort and routine. That is broken somewhat with the turmoil of the plot, but nowhere near the scenes of chaos in the trailer. Also, the ex-wife plot, the "human project" plot, do not exist in the book. the book was very enjoyable though. it's the kind of writing you can really savour.

Not sure where I picked that idea up from then... :confused: