Children of Men Review

Children of Men is a dystopian science fiction film set in the year 2029, where for 18 years women on the earth have become infertile and unable to repopulate the planet. Chaos ensues in the world as people realize that soon enough they will all die and their entire existence will go unrecognized, leading to Britain to be the only safe country left .  Escaped refugees from all around the world come to Britain to achieve a better life, but are greeted to a socialist government that treats refugees like animals and cages them up. This influences the creation of the rebel organization, the Fishes, who are fighting to help the refugees. This movie follows Theo Faron, an average man living his life like he knows he’s going to die,  but he is then thrust into the conflict between the Fishes and the government as he meets Kee, the first woman in 18 years to be fertile. He then finds that the Fishes themselves are corrupt and he needs to take charge and bring Kee to the human project where she will be saved.

                This film brings up the question, what if women eventually became infertile? What would happen to society? Well the answer is that the world would go into disarray, in the beginning you see that all major cities in the world have been destroyed in revolution, all of but Britain. Britain seems like a beacon of hope to the rest of the world, but the government just has such good control of its people and the refugees that it doesn’t allow any violence without it being taken care of immediately. The concept for this movie is great, a very original idea for the future doom of our world, but honestly the execution of it was very thin. The idea that England was the only places still intact in the world strikes the questions, “why did England survive?” and “how did the women of earth become infertile all of a sudden?” The fact that these two important questions are not answered makes the movie look really thin as the writers didn’t take the time to give a reason as to how an entire species can become infertile.

                  Also the movie felt very shallow as there weren’t any deep themes being shown in this movie as in V for Vendetta, V tried to express the themes of  freedom and unity. But in this movie Theo is a very thin character who we know very little about other than the fact that his son died. Theo has nothing to say about anything in this dystopian world and he didn’t even want to rebel by his own wish as he was dragged into it. Although he did show courage when he was risking his life to save Kee’s baby, but as he was running through the war I felt no emotional connection to the character to even care about the fact that he died. His death was nothing to me but a desperate addition of drama to create interest at the very dull and underwhelming ending. The ending was very aggravating as it did not tell anything about how the world was afterwards as it just left you with a cliff hanger ending, which in my books is the most annoying thing to put in anything.

                Although, I do think the acting was well done in this film and that is the only thing that keeps me at all interested in the characters. Clive Owen, who played Theo did a good job portraying a man who was trying to close off any emotions he had, as he was always trying to be oblivious to the world around him. As well Michael Caine was also very funny as Jasper and I actually did feel bad when he died for being such a caring man. I also think the cinematography in this film was very well done, as the cameras were always set to make us focus at one thing at a time and allowed for a clear understanding of the action scenes. This is true for when Theo is walking through the war torn building, the camera is following him free hand to give us a perspective of a person following Theo into safety, as if he were a god. 

              But in all, this movie really disappointed me because the dystopian setting in this is really well realized and very interesting, but the fact that I felt no emotional connection to Theo meant that the movie fell completely flat by the end. In my opinion I would give this film a 3.5 out of 5 because it did have an interesting premise, but it wasn't deep enough for me to care much for the setting or the characters. Honestly recommending this film is difficult for me, but if someone is a fan of science fiction then I think they should check this movie out, but if not then I would definitely take a pass on this film.

Review for V for Vendetta

Anton Sitkovets

            From the very beginning, V for Vendetta provides a compelling and deep story that paints a picture of a dystopian future in Britain. With civil war raging on in the U.S, Britain ‘s citizens are struck with a virus that leads to hundreds of thousands of deaths across the country. Which leads to the ruling of totalitarian leader, Sutler who is working to take the rights and freedoms of all his citizens to gain full control. The world in V for Vendetta is incredibly imagined and detailed and hooks you to believe that something like this could happen, where overthrowing the government would be needed. The government in this is film is much like the government in Pink Floyd’s The wall where people are of full control by their leaders. The debate about freedom is brought up here and it delivers it very well, as the question comes up as; do we really have as much choice in our lives as we think? Or is our government brainwashing us into believing that we all freedoms we are entitled to. These political themes are strong in the film as ideas of anarchy and togetherness are supported through united revolution as V sends his masks to all the houses in London to test the citizens’ loyalty to the government.

 The character of V is also a very strong character, with a rich back story of biochemical testing and revenge as he devotes his life to bringing down the government but has an epiphany when he meets Evey. The character that played V was very talented at being able to portray emotions and feelings in a character while at the same time wearing a mask. This meant all his emotions had to be conveyed through enunciating and expressing through his voice. V also sounded somewhat like a robotic character because he seemed to have very little experience talking to others, but at the same time had a very intelligent opinion to him. The actor portrayed him very well as he sounded like a very introspective person, who learned everything in his life from books and movies rather than social interaction. In my opinion this is a great movie, where even action fans would enjoy as it is a superhero film with great action sequences, but the chunk of the story derives from learning about V’s backstory and his reason and intentions for revenge. I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys a well acted and story heavy film, but would not necessarily recommend it to people who only watch comedies or mindless action films. This film had great acting all around as well as a very enticing story that makes you want to stay around for the end. I would definitely recommend this film to others and now I plan to watch Alan Moore’s Watchmen, to see more of his amazing work.

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