Children of Men

Before this movie, I had only seen one film by the relatively new-to-Hollywood Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, and that was Harry Potter 3 - which was, however, my favourite of the Harry Potter films. It was darker in tone to the previous two and had a much grittier feel to it, which I felt reflected the books more accurately. There seemed to be an atmosphere about it that had not been present in the other films.

Children of Men was not much different to the Harry Potter 3 movie in terms of style, despite the fact that this was enhanced to a much greater level. Set in London, in the year 2027, we witness the world in complete chaos after no woman on the entire planet has given birth for 18 years. Mankind has effectively become an endangered species and now economies are falling apart. It is a plot which seems quite silly on first hearing - which is what I thought before watching it - however, in the film, it is portrayed so simply that it is horrifyingly believable.

The film does have an amazingly apocalyptic feel to it and this is really enhanced by the way the audience are placed within the action on so many occasions. We follow character Theo, the main protagonist, throughout, and our thoughts are synchronised with his - as he learns, we learn. Therefore, the story does not really give much away and the whole time we are left asking a lot of questions. However, this makes it even more intense as we feel really part of this mass-panic. Many of the film's action scenes are filmed in long takes (the longest, I think, being up to eleven minutes long) and they do generally allow the viewer to be very involved. Most of it is filmed handheld and the camera tracks through the intense, endless-seeming action, amongst bomb explosions, gunshots and massacres of crowds of people, which all in itself seems so real, however, the attention is still carefully not drawn away from the main character who remains in shot for pretty much the entire time.

What I enjoyed most about Children of Men was its realistic portrayal of the future world and how unafraid it was to show really graphic scenes of terror and violence without corrupting the whole plot, which was the characters' struggle to protect a young girl who is about to deliver the first child into the world in 18 years. The cinematography was also amazing, being both visually disturbing and beautiful - which really related to the theme of the story as a whole. The thing that worked most, however, was how the director was never tempted to over-do any of the action - he kept it real and believable, which is something many Hollywood directors fail to do. I feel Alfonso Cuaron brought from his Mexican roots, the ability to reflect society to a true extent, keeping it gritty and terrifyingly real, without relying heavily on special effects, whilst making the most of what could be described as quite a simple storyline.