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.
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