Children of Men has a lot going for it. Its post-apocalyptic world is fascinating, its detail is strong, performances on track, and some truly stunning visual moments are worth the price of admission. Unfortunately, the finer points seem to be some sort of in-joke, left to the writers or author of the book it’s based on. The audience is lost to any of the occurrences or why they’re happening, receiving (at best) the Cliff notes.
Children of Men then becomes a chase movie, one where people have apparently become so stupid they can’t see the proper means to protect the one woman who could save all of humanity. In this bleak future (is there any other?), humans can no longer breed, and Britain is the only country left with any sense of balance or power.
Why humans can no longer have children is unknown. Whether it’s a problem with women or men is unknown. What exactly caused a social meltdown in every other country isn’t exactly clear. The world doesn’t have children, so apparently that means go nuts, riot, and destroy what’s left of civilization instead of finding a reason for why this has happened. That is, as long as you don’t live in Britain.
Clive Owen leads the charge to protect one small miracle in this world – the one woman who is pregnant. To do so, he must reach a boat to help her find the “Human Project.” She is currently under guard from rebels.
Why she is pregnant as opposed to everyone else is never explained. Wouldn’t the father be just as important? What the human project is, why they exist, or why they’re so critical to the story, is never brought up. How the one potential mother on the planet came under guard of psychotic rebels is lost on the audience. In addition, animals are breeding as they are everywhere in this film.
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Article comments
1 - Ty
Finally, someone else who thinks Children of Men is not a good movie. I too agree that it was a great sci-fi concept which 20 minutes in, degrades into a chase movie.
2 - RJ Elliott
Great review, Matt. I also thought this film left far too much unexplained. This was a great concept that the filmmakers simply botched.