Opening Thoughts:
Alfonso Cuarón is one of the best directors alive today that is working in the Hollywood Industry. He has made a couple of films that are considered masterpieces. Gravity is my favorite film directed by him. However I’ve never seen Children of Men, so watching it last night was my very first viewing.
The Positives:
The main great thing about this movie is the story. Usually movies where humanity faces extinction, it’s more about finding the survivors and/or zombies are involved. However this movie is really unique because the problem is there has been infertility for the past 18 years in the year of 2027 and every citizens are in deep depression since woman cannot become pregnant. On top of that the United Kingdom is a stable government and their goal is to kill all immigrants entering their country. However one immigrant named Kee has experienced a miracle which is being pregnant and a man named Theo has the duty to escort her to the Human Project which possibly has the solution to cure infertility. As I read this plot before seeing the movie, I was interested in seeing it right away and I was wandering why haven’t I heard about this movie years ago?
The movie does a great job to make the viewer express his/her empathy towards all the main characters and even all the woman that are feeling mental pain since they cannot become pregnant.
The casting was a really great choice in this movie too. Clive Owen was perfect to be the main protagonist, and the side characters played by Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetal Ejofer, and Clare-Hope Ashitey were all great.
There are plenty of great scenes in this movie and the climax scene was one of them them. When Kee reveals to Theo she is pregnant for the first time, the emotions expressed by him was really top notch. It made the movie more interesting and you were invested more with the characters.
The plot twist where Theo finds out Julian’s death was planned out and Luke plans on being the leader of the Fishes and use the baby as a tool really took me off guard. The scene where Kee gives birth to a baby girl was beautiful to see because it’s the first baby that is born after 18 years.
My 2 favorite scenes would be in the last act where the British soldiers and the Fishes stop fighting for a little bit as they see Theo escorting Kee and her baby girl from the apartment building. Both sides were being sympathetic and was happy to witness a baby after 18 years. My other favorite scene was when Kee tells Theo she’ll name her baby daughter Dylan since that was Theo and Julian’s lost son’s name. Right after she tells him that, Theo dies from the shots that were fired by Luke back at that apartment. It was a powerful scene because Theo went through hell to protect Kee and her baby daughter throughout majorly of the film and I guess Kee appreciated for all what he’s done by telling him she’ll name her daughter Dylan before he dies.
The movie is a drama and sci-fi type of film and it does a good job balancing both genres. There are no dull moments and the pacing is really well done.
The Negatives:
I have no flaws with this movie but the only nitpick I have is I felt the tone for the first couple of minutes of the film felt different. Around 20 minutes in the movie, the tone was consistent until the end. I’m probably the only one that felt that but I’m sure when I see the movie multiple times, I’ll see the tone is consistent from start to finish.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, Children of Men is one of Alfonso Cuarón’s greatest films and it’s a movie that definitely can be seen many times. The movie should’ve won Best Cinematography in 2007, but at least it was nominated and for the other two categories it was also nominated for. It’s definitely one of the best films of 2006. I’m gonna rate the movie five out of five stars. 🙂
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The Elite Film Prodigy 