Movie Review: Children of Men

Well it's a relief to have this to unseat Grindhouse as my most recent review. The premise here is that a few years in the future humans can no longer reproduce. But the real story is what humans do without hope. This takes a true story lifted from today's media, extropolates it into the future, and makes it even truer. I'd like to pretend that with faith, I wouldn't lose it as bad as this society has, but there's this ringing in my ears (a cleverly repeated device used in the film that I suddenly understood the intent of much later ) that reminds me that I'm not really above anything.

So what hope do we have on Earth? Is our only hope really self-propagation? And is that all that's holding us back from falling into the abyss? It's a worthy question, and one that I've never seen asked better. If you choose to watch this, know that it's not easy entertainment (as per most of what grabs me and what I review here), but asks you to wrestle with your own self. In sum total, this is a powerful statement about where our increasing fear and hatred will take us, and what it will take to prevent it.

To everyone who thinks this would make a great video game, you've entirely missed the point. It is like a video game -- the comparison is obvious. Watch for an extended one-take action scene toward the end: it looks just like a first-person shooter game, except like the lead character, we don't have a gun. And the stakes are much higher. If we continue to live shallow, sheltered, selfish lives, the consequences are more dire than we care to imagine. That imagination is what Children of Men is for.