A film of extreme highs and lows

Rating: 7/10 (15 September 2007)

Children of Men is a film of extreme highs and lows. In places, the film is mediocre, but in other places it's excellent. In general, I'd say the first hour is mediocre, but the last 30 minutes are outstanding.
The biggest problem for me is that the movie does a poor job of creating the overall setting. We're told that it's the future and that no child has been born in over 18 years, but are provided with no reasons as to why this has happened or why it's about to change. We're also told that the rest of the world has somehow gone to hell and that England is the only country left that's still functioning properly. Unfortunately, the film provides no rationale as to how or why any of this happened and provides only the briefest description of the chaos that's going on in the world at large. As a result, I had a hard time getting into this futuristic world. I couldn't really understand why our heroes were running, what the Fishes wanted, or why the Human Project equaled salvation. Consequently, I also didn't really care too much about the characters. At least, not at first.
However, in the last 30 minutes, the film turned into more of a desperate chase style film and this section of the movie was simply outstanding. There were some very powerful and gripping sequences and the director perfectly captured the desperation and chaos of the situation. In particular, there is one notable shot that many others have cited: an 8 minute-long single-take sequence with our hero, Theo, navigating his way through a battlefield. This scene is one of the most brilliant and gripping sequences that I've ever seen. To me, it was right up there with the best shots in Saving Private Ryan and the movie is worth watching just for this one scene alone. 7/10