Children of Men

[intertext]

Bleak. Bleak. Bleak. Bleak. Bleak. Bleak. Oh, and did I say bleak?

Where did the fashion start that the future was all washed out colour? We don't owe it to Bladerunner, because the colours in Bladerunner are quite rich, even if seen through a filter of rain.

I have to admit that I've never read the P.D James novel on which this movie was based. My colleague the expert on dystopias has and commented that the film-makers had got the atmosphere and the look but lost the ideas. Certainly I didn't get much in the way of ideas from this movie. WTF was it about? I mean really? Beyond the obvious extrapolations of "gee if we carry on the way we're going the world is going to be just like this and it will suck."

I don't know what Julianne Moore was doing in it. Blink and you would miss her. Pam Ferris had more to do, really, which would have pleased my mother, who used to like her in "The Darling Buds of May" and "Where the Heart Is." I love Clive Owen, and he was looking handsome, his large face smudged and wide-eyed and solemn. He was largely expressionless, except for a few minutes with Michael Caine when he did crack a smile.

But quite honestly I didn't have much sense of who was doing what to whom. Nor did I much care. It was brilliantly done. And, yes, it was a very bleak vision of the future. Okay. We got that much.

One good thing - there may not be babies in the future, but there are dogs. There were dogs everywhere, and none of them died.

Comments

[superfoo.livejournal.com]

I liked the movie.

I think that it was geared to appeal largely to an audience that likes thrillers/edge-of-your-seat kind of movies, because it was all about their journey and such.

I liked the movie for the idea of it, but you raise a lot of good points.

The Britain in Children of Men was a lot like the Britain of V for Vendetta only grittier.

I now want to be an expert on dystopias. That would be so cool!!! Who is this colleague???

[intertext.livejournal.com]

I think that post came out sounding rather more negative than I intended. I didn't actively dislike it. (I have nothing against dark visions of the future - Bladerunner is one of my favorite movies) I should have looked at it as a quest, I guess. I was a bit disappointed, because I had heard and read really great things about it and I was prepared to be blown away. The film-making WAS brilliant. But it was sterile. Ironically :) Oh, and it's Jim Sexton who's the utopia/dystopia expert.

[lilyfriend.livejournal.com]

If you can take a class with Jim, I highly recommend it. I think he only teaches in the Fall though? Spends the Winter term off in France or California or who knows where. But I took Shakespeare and his Utopia/Dystopia class with him. Both were brilliant and lots of fun. Am totally fascinated with both subjects, and I owe a lot of that to Jim.

(I recommend Debbie's classes too, of course!! I took two with her as well... But if you're a student reading this, you're probably already taking one. :P)

As far as Children of Men goes.. I liked it for what it was, but admittedly a stronger message could have been conveyed. It was blockbusterized. hehe. Too bad it didn't hone in on more of the cause and effects of what went down. But I don't like Julianne Moore anyway, so I wasn't that sad when she left. :P Loved Michael Caine.