Little in the way of a story

Rating: 3/10 (17 January 2007)

With a 8+ rating, any keen sci-fi fan like myself would surely have had a lot of expectations for Children of Men. So why do I feel so disappointed? In a nutshell, because the story is so simple as and unembellished as to be non-engaging.
WARNING, EXTENSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD
It's 2027. The youngest person in the world has just been murdered by an irate fan, because the former wouldn't give the latter his autograph. The whole world mourns. This global child-drought has been in play since 2009. There's no explanation as to why.
No children, no hope, so the world has largely spiraled down the path of despair and anarchy. At least that's how it appears in England, who apparently is still top-of-the-heap. Other countries have fared even worse. The Establishment still exists, but seems to spend a lot of its resources battling a disparate rabble of anti-Govt forces.
Enter the Saviour, or should we say Saviouress, a young, black and very pregnant woman, Kee. Again no explanation why she has been singled out as The Exception. She has her child, aided and abetted by the films antihero Theo, a Govt worker who has some sympathy for the AG forces. His mission is to ensure Kee makes it to the "Human Project". There's no elaboration as to the latter, though one can guess. The mission isn't a walk-in-the park by any means, but it offers little above Northern Ireland street-fighting and let's-get-that-terrorist. Theo dies fulfilling his mission.
Once the basic mission is established about a third of the way into the film, there are few if any surprises. London-of-despair is fairly well done but like all scenery it is just that. Brief appearances by Julianne Moore and Michael Caine lift the tone a bit but they are both dispatched relatively early in the film. The film devolves to, OK we've been in some inexplicable child-drought for 18 years and now, just as inexplicably, it's about to break - cool.
Too liberal use of the F-word was a distinct turn off for me - I suppose everyone in 2027 is very angry at life and the general situation.
On a completely different tack: It's largely overpopulation which is creating many of the world's problems, so a child-drought for a generation mightn't be such as bad thing. A world capable of easily sustaining perhaps a billion First Worlders is struggling with Seven, all wanting that better consumer standard of living. 3 of out 10.