Children of Men

Ben, Jenn, and I watched Children of Men on Saturday night. I had read a lot of great reviews about this movie, plus it was listed as number 14 of the Top 25 Sci-Fi list of the last 25 years in this week's Entertainment Weekly.

Children of Men is set in the not so-distant future of 2027. It begins with the death of "Baby Diego" the youngest person on earth who was killed at age 18. In 2009, all of the women on earth became infertile for reasons unknown. Without any hope for the future, the world has disintigrated into chaos except for Britian. In order to keep control, the British export illigal immigrants. Britian still has it share of problems with bombings, riots, etc.

This story centers on Theo (Clive Owen), an ex-activist who comes to the aid of his ex-wife Julian (Julianne Moore). Together they try to help a pregnant fugitive named Kee to escape Britian to sea where the "Human Project" awaits her. They will help study her to cure humanity's infertility problems. The escape out of Britain is harrowing. I was suprised by many things, but other deaths I forsaw along the way, which was kind of disappointing.

My favorite parts of the file were when Theo visited his friend, Jasper, (or father, I was never quite clear) played by Michael Caine. Jasper is a long haired hippy that lives out in the woods and grows pot. Theo visits him to escape from everything. Caine played a great character and was pretty funny.

The movie made me think, but it didn't quite live up to my grand expectations. Maybe I need to read the book or watch it again. Maybe my opinion will change over time. It was an interesting movie to watch, but I wouldn't add it to my "favorite movie" list. I did really like both Michael Caine and Clive Owen's performances.

Sidenote: Ben and I had a further discussion, would we rather live in the depressing Children of Men future of the post-apocolyptic "The Road" future. We both voted for Children of Men future as at least there are living animals and vegetation left on earth and people aren't eating each other!!