Children of Men
Thursday, January 4th, 2007 - 3:44pm
I had the opportunity to see it this past weekend, and I highly recommend it. Children of Men is an absolutely stunning film.
I saw it on Monday, and I'm still reeling.
baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
Looks pretty sweet from the previews. I'll have to check it out this weekend.
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Metacritic so far agrees with you: 85 metascore. Nice.
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I don't want to talk it up too much and risk inflating expectations, but it's the best movie I've seen in a long time and IMO one of the best science fiction movies ever made. It really just knocked me on my ass.
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baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
I was worried that this film would get a little preachy. Do you need to be of a particular political persuasion to enjoy it?
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Yes, but we're all good, my Red comrade.
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No. I think that's part of its brilliance. Like all good dystopian sci-fi, there is plenty of biting socio-political commentary, but Cuaron paints with a broad enough brush that it never feels heavy-handed, or pandering to a particular political bent.
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baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
Apparently it's a adaptation of a book by P.D. James, Amazon link here.
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I thought Children of Men was pretty awful. They show too little of the fascinating world of the future and too much of generic forests (or as I call it, "Stargate syndrome"). Characters are all entirely cardboard, their relationships are forced by a clumsy hand of an amateur the likes of which I've not seen since George Lucas ("he ALWAYS snored !"), Julianne Moore makes a really strange cameo, and the acting overall reminds me of Star Wars Episode One. The movie is disconnected from the viewer and sloppily cut together, and it is also Michael Caine's worst role ever.
In other words, if you enjoyed "V for Vendetta", you will like this film.
I did enjoy V so I will be seeing CoM. Thanks for the recommendation.
I saw a one-minute commercial for it and was riveted. Gotta see.
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The funniest part is, Shiho, I understand exactly what you mean, but I will still probably see the movie anyway. It hurts to hear that Michael Caine is underused.
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Quintin_Stone wrote:
My favorite movie of 2006. Just brilliant.
"Even though that place should only be fifteen or twenty minutes away geographically, in actual practice - between the hours of four and seven - Redmond might as well orbit the Earth." - Tycho, Penny Arcade
I'm afraid that line has been traded for "Pull my finger !".
I have seen one preview and was instantly rabid. Sort of like when I saw the preview for Minority Report, which obviously has a totally different vibe, but they are both what I like to call "REAL science-fiction".
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I've seen several trailers for this, and I think I'm going to take myself to see it for the Sunday matinee. I have the book sitting here on my desk waiting for me to finish Perdido Street Station.
Sigh, too much content to digest.
Mystic Violet wrote:
I loved "V for Vendetta". Guess I'll see this film!
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Some of the idea's here remind me a bit of Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson. Anyone knowledgeable on both want to comment? I really enjoyed Spin.
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I saw it last week with no expectations going in and was definitely pleased coming out. I get what Shiho says about seeing too much of the forest and not of enough of the fascinating world, but they had a lot to juggle.
I went with a friend who is an aspiring director and he was a bit unhappy coming out, but he had a good point about the storytelling. There are some issues with the pacing of the exposition, where they are trying hard to paint the world and forget to advance the story for long minutes.
I don't want to say too much more since it appears many of you still haven't seen it, but as for the bland/blank characters, I had no problems attributing that to the effect of the world they inhabit and allowing them to be blank slates for the audience to project onto. A few parts fall flat ("I know you need the money.") but it didn't keep me from being caught up in the experience of the movie.
MrDeVil909: I feel it necessary to point out that there are drug resistant strains of most STDs. Especially in developing nations.
Funkenpants: Great. Yet another area in which we're losing our lead to foreigners.
For what it's worth, I'm a libertarian and I enjoyed this film.
As for the politics of it, nobody comes out clean. It does make some rather obvious jabs at the current administration though.
Semper Delectatio
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Same. I loved V For Vendetta in spite of the fact that I have great reverence for the graphic novel.
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Yeah, I can totally understand Shiho's criticisms, but I had exactly the opposite impression of all the things he mentioned. I thought Michael Caine was brilliant, and Clive Owen also turned in one hell of a performance. No, it's not perfect, and as mentioned there are a few uneven spots, but I still found the overall effect to be just jaw-dropping.
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baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
Quote:
- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.
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Illegal kitten christening and semi-legalized slavery? I'm in!
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Ok, I'm going to check this film out, but if it sucks, there will be beatings.
We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all.
"What misconception traveled down the road and made you want to be here?"
But, now I'm confused. This film looks neat, but I loathed "V for Vendetta" for taking the source material and violating it every way possible.
What do I do!?
Mystic Violet wrote:
Violate the Children of Men. I'm a Child of Man.
"I'm absolutely retarded. Not 100% sure why." - atom
"Dhelor + intarwebs = Great ideas." - wordsmythe
"Do I what I do: hate everyone." - Quintin_Stone
Interesting. I got the V trade paperback for Christmas, well after I saw the movie. Aside from toning down the anarchy and trimming the story to fit in a reasonable movie length, I just didn't see that. But then movie V was more of a libertarian and less of a crazy person, so maybe that appealed to me.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
I'd read the trade paperback well in advance of seeing the movie - several times over, in fact.
It wasn't even the toning down of the themes that got to me, it was the complete and utter nerfing of the characters and the motivations behind the characters. It was very depressing.
And this is drifting waaaay off topic
Mystic Violet wrote:
I am waiting for someone to tell me why the V comic is so good. I thought it was a lousy rehash of Orwell and Huxley, etc.
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Because many people respond to comic books/graphic novels more powerfully than prose, and transplanting Orwell and Huxley into a different medium will open its appeal to that group of previously unreachable people?
Just guessing, since I don't real comics, and have never read V.
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