Children of Men

nomos

nomos

Administrator
Link. The premise is this...
In 2027, as humankind faces the likelihood of its own extinction, a disillusioned government agent agrees to help transport and protect a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea where her child's birth may help scientists to save the future of mankind.
Click to expand...
Set in London with a dubstep-heavy soundtrack, no less.

After getting myself worked up about seeing this, I've just noticed that the North American release date isn't for another three months :slanted:

Any of you UK folk planning on seeing it this weekend (or did anyone make the gala premiere thingy - mms?) I'm really curious. Would like to hear some reactions.
 
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M

mms

sometimes
it's a good film, flawed but good, the scenes of london after the apocalypse are amazing, spot on really, the battle scenes are amazing. dubstep is only on the soundtrack as apocalyptic and rebellion indicator.
the film is quite back to nature, a bit new agey, suggesting to believe in anything is better to believe in nothing, a little bit of the immaculate conception story in there, which the film is so aware of it jokes about. clive owen is good, but they overplay the anti hero bit with whisky fags and a history with a dead kid who got infected with a virus in it.
still lots of interesting lines to follow, i would have paired some of down, lost some of ending, maybe had them find a cloning cult or something rather than an african girl with a baby in her belly (who incidentally says whotcha once, who says that??)
but best battle scenes, lots of great plot devices, amazing scenes of london, very worth seeing.
 
N

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
It's mostly set in Bexhill really isn't it, which is cool.

But yeah, it's good. Affecting stuff first thing in the morning. The violence seems pretty shocking, doesn't hold back. Some of those long hand-held shots through battle scenes are very good - film learning from video games, like when the camera gets splattered in blood and it's left there for the whole scene.

It works because it presents a very credible picture of how things could end up, and in the very near future - the infertility thing notwithstanding. In fact I'd say that's used more as a plot device or metaphor for environmental / political / ideological / resource apocalypse. Also it's a good excuse to be able to introduce some hope. Which is quite funny really, as if everything will be OK as long as there are always more humans...

Didn't manage to spot all the alleged dubstep action - heard Backwards and something else. THe John Taverner stuff works tho.
 
J

jk_gabba

gabba survivor
great film, mainly because of the very convincing portrail of england falling appart and the great attention to detail...


Didn't notice any dubstep though, but a fair amount of psychedelic stuff, king crimson etc..
 
B

blunt

shot by both sides
I think noel emits pretty much nails the main points about this movie, but...

Yeah, I'd have to say it fairly blew me away. I saw it yesterday afternoon at the Odeon Leicester Square - almost empty, plonked myself smack dab in the middle of the audiorium for maximum sonic impact, and it made for an awesome experience. I found it pretty draining, especially the Bexhill set piece, which in terms of scale is quite unlike anything I've ever seen. Surely that can't really have been one take..? I suspect there must have been some pretty clever shot matching in post.

Bit like a Peter Watkins movie if only he:

- wasn't such a didacticist

- didn't have such a massive ego that he was still working on anything of note (I will confess to not having seen La Commune yet, but I gather it's pretty turgid stuff)

- was trusted with a ginormous budget

(I say all of the above as a massive Watkins fan, but with the best will in the world, he's a bit of an arsehole)

My only criticism of Children of Men is that it could maybe have ended 15 seconds sooner. But that's probably asking a bit much of a movie with a budget that size. Inspired use of Jarvis Cocker during the end credits tho. Nicely tongue in cheek.

And having recently had a baby, I can confirm that I cried for pretty much the whole of the climactic 15 mins :eek:

So, yeah, what with Brick on Sunday, this has been a great week for movies!

Dumplings tonight...
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Yeah ditto to all the above. They play kode9 and spaceape in one of the pubs. A nice idea!

I can't get over how well informed the director has been about UK life, especially with regard to traveller culture and the kinda ALF / Greenpeace stuff it was referencing. Well observed by someone, and very well styled. I did the Odeo Leicester Square thing and it wiped me out, cried buckets and walked out into an Adam Sandler catwalk premiere feeling very weirded out.

Cracking film, what's with the UK and dystopian visions at the moment? I hope it's not a prediction of a major catastrophe. I do hope it's a prediction of a revolution though.
 
Woebot

Woebot

Well-known member
i think it's dmz's anti-war dub though it did sound like kode9 and the spaceape didnt it.

king crimson yes and also franco battiato!

great great movie.
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
i believe kode9+spaceape, mystikz and random trio are the dubsteppers on the soundtrack. they got the red carpet treatment at the opening.

i don't know why they've put off the north american release for so long, but i'm getting antsy. IT did this post on it the other day.

just on a similar note, i'd love to see someone do a good job of adapting ballard's drowned world to the screen.
 
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D

dubversion

Guest
I thought it was excellently-shot rubbish, to be honest. Clive Owen is a pish actor anyway, the plot was just bobbins (the book apparently makes more sense, if you like your crypto-christian bullshit coherent!) and although the battle scenes were incredible, the whole thing just fell apart.
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
I'm still waiting to see this. It's playing in NYC and I think elsewhere in the States, but nowhere in Canada apparently. Do any North Americans know what's up with distribution over here? Is it going to stayed this limited? IMDB is no help. The DVD is supposed to be out in Britain next week.
 
krankissey

krankissey

mr. great
i thought it was good, the action scenes were incredible. the dialogue sucked but whatever.

michael caine playing air guitar to dubstep... shameful.

overall good movie.
 
P

polystyle

Well-known member
'80 years with luck or even less...'

Yea , this was quite good , just saw it last night on 19th St. and Broadway.
If this year is like last, probably one of the only Movies I'll shell out $11 to see in a theatre in '07.

Did hear Kode - Space Ape in that pub scene,
nice use of Crimson and the AFX track with screams on top scene was funny,
the air guitar over in seconds.

Michael Caine's character just about stole the movie ,
the scene where he's left sitting with his silent , still wife and he looks at her and says
'I love you' , well, sums up many of our future years doesn't it ?
You just HOPE you do have someone to say it to - or to say it to you ...

Then when he gets cut down in front of his home you get angry ... 'those fuckers ...'
His character reminded me of the cat in 'V For Vendetta' , in his home you have the assorted private stuff of life - outside , well it's hellish.

The car scene where they are driving to get away from city when the feral traveller' crusties come out of the woods to attack - wow cinema

Dug the wit of the news blurbs about 'the world ended - 'Only England is still standing'
Still erm , 'Standing' , looking like Chernobyl and suburbs of hell.
In the end, the movie goes well with some past discussions here 'what if' , 'how if'
our civilizations implode and how it will be to come out the other side and um, survive.
Making fire in wet woods to dry wet wool not a pretty life.

Now all that's needed to follow V , Children is the film version of Riddley Walker to round out the UK dystopian trilogy

Everyone should see this one.
 
STN

STN

sou'wester
Funnily enough, I was thinking about Riddley Walker the other day, specifically how I thought it might be unfilmable. What do you reckon, obviously you'd have to sacrifice a key element in the book in order to film it but I guess maybe the story and imagery is so strong that you could still make a good film out of it. What would you have on the soundtrack? I'd have loads of 23 Skidoo, or something.
 
swears

swears

preppy-kei
Interesting premise. I remember hearing a scientist in the news a few months back saying that there was no hope of saving the enviroment unless the human population dropped down to about 2 billion, less than a third of what it stands at now. So, if this scenerio played in a less severe way than in the film, (say only a quarter of woman could have children, for instance) then it might actually be a good thing. One of the problems with capitalism is that it requires an increase in population to sustain market growth, without which you cannot have stock market speculation. Funny how the "zero population growth" initiatives of the 60s have all but been forgotten eh?
What's the point in having kids if they're going to live in a apocalyptic cesspool anyway?
 
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