From a Londoner

Rating: Null/10 (26 September 2006)

What a film! Saw it last night in Kingston Odeon - cinema quite busy for a Monday. I loved it, having not gone in with high expectations after reading a so-so review.
As a Londoner it was spooky watching so many familiar sights and scenarios with a (entirely feasible) twist, eg: buses and trains with bars on the windows. The future-predictivity of the film was so cutting and spot-on. Plus some nice little touches such as when just before he first got kidnapped he walks past 3 black guys dressed in (retro) bowler hats and city dress to accentuate their "Britishness", in an attempt to avoid being hassled by the police/military no doubt.
The film has multiple references to nazi Germany, ethnic-cleansing, Islamic fundamentalism, eco-warriors, class war, mad cow disease. I'm glad to see that Battersea power station has been put to good use - housing the rescued statue of David by Michaelangelo - while, from the windows of the penthouse, Rome burns below.
Laughed at Theo's boss's office: narrow, cramped and window-less, and the references to Diana-mania that preceded it. All very close to the bone.
And Clive Owen is superb, absolutely in his element as the cynical Dekard-with-a-sense-of-humour (hey he is British after all) character. Surely his best film yet.
Gritty, imaginative, original, Children of Men is our answer to Blade Runner, with bells on.