Amazing takes and gripping story

Rating: 9/10 (5 January 2007)

This film is pretty superb. I still haven't seen Y Tu Mama Tambien (I'm ashamed...) but I was really impressed with Alfonso Cuaron's work in, of all things, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Cuaron put the long takes and multiple depths and fantastic background in that movie to provide magic to a series seriously lacking in what it's all about (and I don't think any of the subsequent movies are going to ever be as good). Thus, knowing he had made a Science Fiction dystopian flick, I was intrigued.
Going back to the idea of long takes.... talk about long takes. Cuaron has somehow taking the complicated shots through multiple stories and buildings and sets that everyone is so impressed that PT Anderson can do and has stuffed it with more complications with a world falling apart from violence and despair. It adds to the tension of a dramatic lack of hope so much that I think if it wasn't for the comedic relief of Jasper (Michael Caine!), I don't think I could have made it through it.
It's about the world twenty years in the future where humanity has suddenly ceased to procreate. Clive Owen plays a depressed and inanimate man who suddenly finds himself trying to accompany a pregnant woman (and the world's only hope) through a world filled to the brim with rioting, anxiety, and destruction.
The dirty mise-en-scene and a lot of the dystopic imagery has already brought comparisons to Blade Runner, but to me this is a whole new image. Actually, it seems to me closer to 28 Days Later, but is vastly more infinite in scale.
I think this movie would be perfect if it wasn't for the fact that a lot of the dialog is filled with contemporary meaning in a little too obvious way. V for Vendetta made the same mistake of making a science fiction that was just a little TOO obviously a comment on the political realm of today. Luckily the story and the action make this into an adventure all of its own.
By the way, it also has a great soundtrack. Pointedly hippy, but great nonetheless.
--PolarisDiB