back to the dark future

Rating: 8/10 (10 April 2007)

None of the visions in science fiction films about what expects us in a few or a few tens of years is too positive. This reflects the global pessimism derived by recent political developments, terrorism, global warming. Director Alfonso Cuar贸n's vision in 'Children of Men' is however by far the darkest that I saw later.
'The world collapsed' and the last refuge is Britain, which has become a generalized Iraq combined with a Orwellian vision of a super-patriot and anti-immigration laws. Beyond looking like a huge wasteland the world was struck by infertility, no children were born in the last 18 years. When a woman is pregnant, and when this woman is a black illegal immigrant she becomes the treasure and Mesia of the oppressed, and the object of hunt for rebels and police as well. It is such a coincidence and the killing of his ex-wife that determines the hero played by Clive Owen to get out of his gray carcass of a semi-human semi-robot and start acting as a movie hero.
What makes the film remarkable is the skill and consistency of the director vision. We have seen already after all many pictures which described a post atomic era or such. Yet, none of them built that carefully the vision of what our planet could become if we do not pay attention.