Sometimes I wonder if we all watched the same film. I am commenting on Children of Men. I did not find it spectacular or phenomenal, unless in the negative. Although Clive Owen and Julianne Moore were top billed, I found this dark and seamy movie a disaster. I earned every minute that I watched this film. I guess the idea that the first baby to be born in 20 years was a hopeful sign. I got to the point in the movie where I could see that nothing, even a "good" ending (ie: mother and baby live) was going to help this film. That is when I turned off this "truly masterpiece of plot, action and imagery." If the future looks like this, I'm glad I probably won't live to see it.1/5

Gripping movie visually spectacular with non stop action. Very realistic looking chaotic world they live in. It kept me on the edge of my seat. I did expect a little more but was still very impressed and entertained. This scenario is chilling because it feels way more real then a zombie end of days.

So, Children of Men.

There were some problems that I had with the depiction of the plot. Much of what you needed to know about the movie was told in the first 15 minutes via random broadcasts be it television or radio and newspaper clippings.

Too much of the back story relied on the audiences ability to stay focused during a fairly slow start to a fairly slow movie. There were too many things going on for it to be a slow movie.

It is confusing to say that it was busy and slow at the same time, but the sloath of the movie came in with the long abbreviations between coherent moments of realizations as well as the intense action scenes that would seem to randomly appear out of the moments of realization.

The acting was decent. Clive Owen stepped outside of his usual action hero character with this particular action hero, never actually wielding a gun with a proficient hand.
Julianne Moore...well let's just say that I didn't see what the big deal was with her being in the movie. If you chose to watch it, you will understand when I say she was almost like an impossibly secondary character that only linked Clive's character to the pregnant woman.
That, in my opinion, isn't worth her name on the front of the cover, maybe an honorable mention on the back...maybe.

The idea of Children of Men was interesting enough to keep me watching, and the bouts of good acting did as well. All in all, the only thing keeping me attached to the movie was wanting to find out the end.

3/10 because of the busy boredom.

I've had a particularly bad film year, especially after having seen one particular over-hyped vacuous mess earlier in the year which all but killed my desire to see any films, no matter how interesting they looked or what the critics said about them. So, it was with a little trepidation that I went to see this, especially given that it starred Clive Owen (IMHO, the George Lazenby of British acting).

Well, I loved it and I'm not ashamed. It's unremittingly bleak and violent, but so beautifully filmed and realised that, at one point, I damn nearly burst into tears that someone could have created something so fresh and so moving, so provocative, so disturbing and so grimly beautiful. I thought it brought a real sense of imagination to the screen and that it was possessed of a fantastic visual flair. I felt that it ended on a note of hope, however uncertain and unclear, and certainly a note of redemption for the hero. I'll admit that Owen, while he still hasn't convinced me that he's a great actor, pulls off this role with a hangdog...um, doggedness that I found believable and often even moving.

I left the cinema strangely elated, relieved that cinema still has the power to move.

I've had a particularly bad film year, especially after having seen one particular over-hyped vacuous mess earlier in the year which all but killed my desire to see any films, no matter how interesting they looked or what the critics said about them. So, it was with a little trepidation that I went to see this, especially given that it starred Clive Owen (IMHO, the George Lazenby of British acting).

Well, I loved it and I'm not ashamed. It's unremittingly bleak and violent, but so beautifully filmed and realised that, at one point, I damn nearly burst into tears that someone could have created something so fresh and so moving, so provocative, so disturbing and so grimly beautiful. I thought it brought a real sense of imagination to the screen and that it was possessed of a fantastic visual flair. I felt that it ended on a note of hope, however uncertain and unclear, and certainly a note of redemption for the hero. I'll admit that Owen, while he still hasn't convinced me that he's a great actor, pulls off this role with a hangdog...um, doggedness that I found believable and often even moving.

I left the cinema strangely elated, relieved that cinema still has the power to move.