Careful choreography & camera-work bring this 2-dimensional story to life

Rating: 7/10 (26 January 2013)

The strength of this film is not in its plot but in its presentation. The story is pretty basic: in a dismal future where humans are infertile and hopeless, an unlikely hero fights to survive & protect one small hope of humanity. The plot is set in the beginning and remains pretty linear, but pay attention to the excellent camera work which sets this film apart from your regular dismal future action flick.
In particular, the director uses long fluid takes. Like up to 5 minutes without a cut (in actuality there are some cuts but they're digitally blended together seamlessly so the effect remains continuous. In the commentary, the director says he did this to give the audience a sense of real time. And yes, it's very effective, as if you're there in the middle of the action watching things unfold second-by-second.
To achieve this, the director had to go through extraordinary efforts. For example, in order to film a car chase with simultaneous dialogue from 5 people inside the car, he had to build a special car with a hole in the roof & camera crew on top so the camera could pan, twist & move through every angle necessary. Meanwhile the action of dozens of extras outside (not to mention fire & explosives) had to be carefully timed & choreographed to fit with the dialogue.
In another memorable scene, again seemingly consisting of one continuous take with no cuts, the action begins in the street under intense gunfire, the camera follows our hero running down several side streets, into a bus, into a building, up a flight of stairs, down the hall, up another flight of stairs and through a bunch of rooms, all the while with scores of extras running around and shooting hundreds of bullets--all in one fluid camera take.
Folks this is no ordinary action flick. It's a complex work of movie-making excellence. If you enjoy the sort of technical stuff I've been babbling about, you'll really enjoy the presentation. I haven't seen such meticulous camera work in an action flick since "The International" and "Run Lola Run" directed by German genius Tom Tykwer.