Spledidly visceral but surprisingly shallow for it's content

Rating: 7/10 (28 March 2007)

Provocative drama-action premise, taking place in the not-too-distant future of England, doesn't quite fulfill it's amazing cinematic potential but offers plenty of worthwhile attempts at being swept up into the compelling atmosphere. In adapting this dystopian tale for film, Alfonso Cuarón brings a tremendous urgency to the pace, shooting all action with an astounding clarity that elevates this drama to a believable nightmare of immersion.
Sadly I feel the script, written by five people no less, is not able to keep up with the near-visionary production intellectually, emotionally, philosophically, or otherwise. It would seem that with a plot as horrifyingly profound as the one we are dealt here, more relevance would have been put into the dialog and motivations surrounding our protagonist, though here against the apocalyptic setting everything just sort of breezes by neatly along it's designated plot-arc, sometimes feeling entirely too mechanical for it's own good. While there is always a rousing spontaneity through the lens of Cuarón's perceptive direction and Emmanuel Lubezki's tremendous action cinematography, too often Children of Men's actual story feels preordained, as if we are just watching a serviceable Clive Owen running through steps 1-10 without having the slightest interest or indication why we should care. There are times, though they are few and far between, where you can tell the cast and crew misread a particular scene, offering unintentional humor instead of the tragedy the moment would imply. As second-billed, Julianne Moore fans should beware, her role is short and small, absolutely not the lead role performance it is being touted as.
Eventually it becomes clear that Cuarón was more interested in this project for aesthetic reasons then underscoring thematic intent, which will still leave viewers quite an explosive piece of science fiction with a little bit of relevance thrown in. Try not nit picking that much on plot-points though, and you will instead be rewarded with last year's most impressively executed action sequences....anything else taken from the entertaining and thoughtful piece of Hollywood movie-making, one can write off as a bonus.