The art of cinema refuses to lie down and die.

Rating: 10/10 (6 April 2007)

An astonishing, breathtaking piece of cinematography. Well realised characters played to perfection, a true hero in the pre gun-porn fashion, flawless composition and direction, truly seamless merging of effects, an eclectic score, and a plot that is finely calculated to bring the viewer's involvement to a peak.
Of all the great things about this film, it's the pacing that impressed me the most. It sets the dystopian tone firmly from the very start, but then throttles back a little. For a while it seems to be coasting, but this is just the prelude to a very gradual ramping up of the scenarios and intensity until by the time the final sequences roar onto the screen, your investment in the characters and their situation is absolute. This is helped by the often demonstrated fact that absolutely none of the protagonists in this film are untouchable, and that their demise can be instantaneous and unheralded. You cannot afford to look away for a second, and nor would you want to; I can't remember the last time I could say that about a film.
The only point that can be criticised is the very occasionally clumsy exposition of the back-story to the dystopian world. However, most of that also serves as character development, so I can forgive this tiny flaw. The almost spooky similarities to the setting and tone of the computer game Half Life 2 are, given the production timing of the two pieces, either co-incidental, or due to them independently drawing on the same source material. And if being compared to Half Life 2 is the worst that you can say about a film, it's a high compliment indeed.