01-13-2007, 08:53 PM
-Spoilers alert-
I remember an author whose name escaped my mind right now use to say a Science-Fiction story is rarely about the future, the better ones are actually a commentary about the present.
'CoM' is definitely that in my eyes. I've read some critics basically panned it for being nothing more than a nicely executed chase movie. Even if that was true, it's one of the best if not -the- best chase movie to date I've seen. Another complaint was the use of cgi\animatronics for the birth scene, being it's not totally realistic\believable.
I gotta say that is one of the most ass-inine criticism I've read so far. If we were to use that standard, then the shark in Jaws was obviously the biggest flaw of that film, and maybe Spielberg should do the right thing and re-edit it with the latest and greatest digital technology whizbangery. You know replace the shark's teeth with a walkie talkie or something. Maybe get George Lucas to put in a tap dancing Jawa on the boat as well. Dammit man, the reason 'Jaws' worked so well for me was because the story and the character was well done, that by the time the fake shark came on screen I was willing to suspend disbelief.
I don't want to pick on Spielberg specifically, but basically he's become of the poster boy for empty sfx cinema confectionary that wants to pass as something more meatier to me, especially when it comes to his more recent take on sci-fi. Even bigger than Lucas imo, looking at A.I., Minority Report, War of the Worlds, there's just too many damn scenes that basically screams out 'I'm a serious and sombre scifi -film- but hey CHECK THIS OUT OMG SUPER-SFX!!11 SHOT' to me.
But enough of the hate, let's get on to the love. 'Children of Men' special effects is really quite a special case nowadays, it is used to support the story, and it's almost invisible. It's rarely intrusive, very restrained, only after some scenes is over somewhere in the back of my mind started going,' how the hell did they get that shot?' Not in a bad way, I meant it as 'how the hell did they make it so believable I've a hard time noticing it until the movie was over?'. You'll know what I'm talking about if you see the 'country drive' scene.
There's a scene near the beginning where the main character Theo has lunch with his cousin, whose dining room decoration includes Picasso's 'Guarnica'. This is one of the darkly funnier moments for me, because that's what the movie basically is to me, our most recent version of Guarnica. Dante's Inferno:2007 Remix would also be fitting.
-ending spoiler alert-
The ending is one of those things that I think, actually says more about the viewer depending on their reaction\interpretation. I've heard it being called ambigous and anticlimactically too optimistic, to ambigous and anticlimactically depressing. For me, it's similar to the ending of 'Taxi Driver'. It could be interpreted that yes everything seems to be wrapped up in too nice a package, Travis saving the young girl and hailed a hero. It's also a possibility that Travis did die, and what we saw after the shooting was his last dying thoughts and fantasy.
It's possible that Theo accomplished his mission and re-gained his faith, and also saved the world by helping Kee and her baby. But my personal interpretation right now anyway, is that we're never shown any images at the end, just a black screen with the sounds and laughter of children. Considering that the whole movie is from Theo's point of view, I have to go strongly with the direction that he passed out\died, at best he did see -a- boat before he passed away, but that's it. Anything afterwards is his version of 'Heaven' and him regaining his hope and faith for the world. But just because he might have went upwards and everything is a-ok again, doesn't mean that's what actually happened to the world.
To finish off my rambling, there's just too many things (mostly the depressing stuff) in this movie that rings true to me because I've seen it (or a nearly identical variation of it) in real life, but it kind of gives me a small measure of hope that if the dark and craptacular things are present in both the flick and real life, so are the positive things. I highly recommend it. Probably not a first date movie though, unless your date is the type who thinks Goya's Black Paintings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Paintings makes for cheery wallpapers.
