Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Doug Flynn (A) on January 10, 2007 at 23:41:12

In Reply to: Review: Children of Men, after due consideration. posted by Audiophilander on January 10, 2007 at 14:01:43:

Hi AuPh

Here in Oz our best movie review show recently interviewed the director, who said that he wanted to make a sci fi movie that avoided as many cliches as possible. In fact, he wanted to make the great anti-sci fi sci fi movie. One thing he was adamant about was that he wanted the reasons for infertility unstated in the movie. He thought a scientific explanation would appear "preachy" or glib (can you imagine the following dialog, "We just kept polluting our environment until one day Mother Nature gave up on us, or, The Thargs from planet Thargron fired an energy beam at us that caused infertility, etc").

Can you imagine what would have happened if a bigtime Hollywood director had made this movie? Spielberg? Tom Cruise as the hero, replete with CGI effects. Puh-leese....

I liked the movie a lot (the director used video rather than film to give it a gritty urban look, which I liked), but I too found it frustrating and inconsistent. The final battle scenes were wanky IMHO. I also didn't like the lack of character development or motivation in the bad guys (but then again maybe the director wanted it this way). I also thought the ending was weak.

On the flipside I thought the movie mirrored our times in a lot of ways. The illegal immigrant angle was terrifyingly real. The most fascinating aspect I found was the truth in how children pacify us. The scene with the soldiers aghast at seeing a baby for the first time was great cinema.

Cheers. Doug