Movie Review #1 - Children of Men
Oct. 25th, 2006 08:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catalyst2I liked this movie a lot - fast pace, good action scenes, good acting and good script.
First check of the watch - NEVER.
From the opening scene which transforms from the whimsical Baby Diego "news" (I already hated that guy and we never even met the character!) to a shocking bombing within seconds, to the very end of the movie, this movie never lets up. The story is simple in outline but the execution is complex enough and has enough twists and turns to keep me interested. The combat scenes are very reminiscent of "Saving Private Ryan" and just as graphic and shocking.
Two scenes absolutely got me - the opening scene described above (that certainly made me sit up in my seat) and the scene where Theo and Kee come out of the building in Bexhill where everybody stops in awe of the baby. I really started to think that Fishers were right - that this was "The Uprising" and that the soldiers might turn on their political masters. Just to further twist the knife already in my gut (but in a good sense!), the violence flares back up in shocking intensity and the world returns to its violent, pointless destruction.
I liked the ending too - although the cynic in me wanted the big ship to either be a patrol boat (do they see them or not?) or to run straight over the top of the dinghy! That would have been just too much but, as it is, it still finishes on an uncertain note, which fitted the tone of the movie.
Performances - without fault for me. Clive Owen as a laconic anti-hero was good, Michael Caine as philosophical pot connoisseur Jasper was great and Julianne Moore as Julian was suitably agitated and pressured without being over-the-top. Best of all, though was Chiwtel Ejiofor (why is that name always so difficult to type?) who was absolutely spot-on as The Operative-like Luke. His manipulations of the Fishers and assassination of Julian were great plot points and he carried everything off with his usual focus and intensity. The only grating character was Peter Mullan as Syd - on principle, I dislike characters who talk about themselves in the third person.
First check of the watch - NEVER.
From the opening scene which transforms from the whimsical Baby Diego "news" (I already hated that guy and we never even met the character!) to a shocking bombing within seconds, to the very end of the movie, this movie never lets up. The story is simple in outline but the execution is complex enough and has enough twists and turns to keep me interested. The combat scenes are very reminiscent of "Saving Private Ryan" and just as graphic and shocking.
Two scenes absolutely got me - the opening scene described above (that certainly made me sit up in my seat) and the scene where Theo and Kee come out of the building in Bexhill where everybody stops in awe of the baby. I really started to think that Fishers were right - that this was "The Uprising" and that the soldiers might turn on their political masters. Just to further twist the knife already in my gut (but in a good sense!), the violence flares back up in shocking intensity and the world returns to its violent, pointless destruction.
I liked the ending too - although the cynic in me wanted the big ship to either be a patrol boat (do they see them or not?) or to run straight over the top of the dinghy! That would have been just too much but, as it is, it still finishes on an uncertain note, which fitted the tone of the movie.
Performances - without fault for me. Clive Owen as a laconic anti-hero was good, Michael Caine as philosophical pot connoisseur Jasper was great and Julianne Moore as Julian was suitably agitated and pressured without being over-the-top. Best of all, though was Chiwtel Ejiofor (why is that name always so difficult to type?) who was absolutely spot-on as The Operative-like Luke. His manipulations of the Fishers and assassination of Julian were great plot points and he carried everything off with his usual focus and intensity. The only grating character was Peter Mullan as Syd - on principle, I dislike characters who talk about themselves in the third person.
