A beautiful and thought-provoking journey into a near-future dystopia

Rating: Null/10 (11 October 2006)

If, by going to see this film, you're expecting a slick, action-packed, Hollywood-style thriller, you will be disappointed. There's no flashy CGI, Bruce Willis does not appear in a vest and the hero and the villain do not mysteriously lose their projectile weapons at the end of the movie, in order to be forced to take each other on in hand-to-hand combat.
However, if you would like to witness an idea of what a world might be like twenty years from now, if we don't successfully address current issues such as population migration, industrial farming practises, our falling birth-rate, global warming, our poisoning of the seas etc, then this film is worth a watch.
Yes it's dark, gritty and depressing and no, there isn't any explanation given as to why the world in the film has ended up the way it is (some people have criticised the film because of this) - but read the news and use your intelligence and it's not hard to imagine how it might happen.
*Possible Spoiler* The sequence in the refugee town is one of the most beautiful pieces of cinematography I've ever seen - imagine the grimy, battle-torn city at the end of Full Metal Jacket, combine it with a fire-fight sequence on a par with the start of Saving Private Ryan and check out the looks of utter stunned disbelief on the faces of the soldiers as they hear the sound of a baby crying for (probably) the first time in their lives. The film is worth the price of admission for this scene alone.