OK... so I saw this last night.
I don't wish to over-sell this film, but it's probably one of the best films I've seen in a ciniema for the last year.
Let me make this clear: The film is just drenched in Kubrick-ism. There's absolutely no way of getting away from it... if Kubrick had been directing this from the grave, it really wouldn't have surprised me. On top of those influences, the Ridley Scott/Bladerunner influence is also quite clear - particularly in the scenes that involve the protagonist's home and in the squalour of the refugee camps. Add into that mix the same bleakness and urban realism of 28 days later (though without the cruddy acting) and you have a fairly terrifying vision of the year 2027.
The film wisely doesn't predict a spangly vision of 2027, nor does it show an absurdly decayed dystopia. In many ways, much of Britain looks the same - as do the customs and rituals of it's inhabitants. Ths isn't an alien world... it's home. The use of CGI is employed to create this effect, however, it isn't the best CGI. In some places it
looks too compuer generated, but it's use is quite conservative (no doubt not to emotionally distance the viewer from the possibility of this vision being a reality).
The camera work is totally Kubrick, with shades of "A Clockwork Orange" - a fact that seems almost intentional, particularly in the scene with the art gallery. From that homage, the latter half of the film also conjures up thoughts of Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket", as the war torn country and refugee camps pull themselves apart. It's truly distressing to see the later scenes... dredged up memories of news reports of the Bosnian war. There's a hefty dose of Schindler's List in there too.
I can't emphasise enough the emotional effect the film had on me. Perhaps because I'm British, perhaps because I see the seeds of fascism in British politics that make it all seem so much closer to home... but there was a certain scene...
...where I actually uttered the first word of a three word sentence:
"You..."
Before I stopped myself having realised that I was speaking out loud in a cinema! Had I finished the sentence, it would have been:
"You fucking fascists".
Not something I say lightly.
This is a film that makes me want to see it again. There's so many themes in the film (human need for violence, saviours being as their oppressors, etc), but there's also a quite blatant religious factor. It's been a while since my eyes actually watered during a film (hey... I never said I cried), but the final few battle scenes are something to behold.
I'm sure I'm not doing it true justice, but if any of the films I've mentioned as reference points are films that you hold in regard... I'm almost certain you'll get a kick out of Children of Men.
See it.
