Children of Men

Loren Michael

because the movie was awesome and it was hogging all the [Chat] space.

did anyone else catch Life in a Glasshouse playing in the background at the house?

also, holy damn. the sheer amount of (seemingly) uncut insane action scenes.

[spoiler:de30ca55f7]when the girl gets shot in the beginning. OMG![/spoiler:de30ca55f7]

discuss!

Evil Multifarious

Man, those long shots made the movie so intense. There was no relief. You could only unwind when the shot was over, and some were like a half goddamn hour long. Fantastic.

[spoiler:797b3f7be1]One of the last scenes, from when they come into the battlezone right to when Luke shoots Theo, is all one shot. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.[/spoiler:797b3f7be1]

The camera work was really reminiscent of FPSs like Half Life 2. The way it would peek around corners, the way events would sort of spill onto the camera, not to mention how the whole setting and look was very HL2, it was all really eerily familiar.

[spoiler:797b3f7be1]After they drive away, when Julian gets shot, and you go to the cops lying on the ground, the radio just made me think of the Combine.[/spoiler:797b3f7be1]

Genius film, one of my favourites by far.

Loren Michael

god, i was thinking the same thing the whole way through. the camera work really put you in the middle of the action. it wasn't like there was a scene, and then a scene devoted to a gunfight, and then a scene where the characters get to reflect, and then another gunfight scene. it was all a big organic, flowing mess.

Drunk_caterpillar

Yep. Pretty much what I told my buddy. Best cinematography since Munich.

It didn't hurt that the rest of the film was fantastic too. Anyone else notice that there was always ringing in any tense scene?

Loren Michael

Drunk_caterpillar wrote:

Yep. Pretty much what I told my buddy. Best cinematography since Munich.

It didn't hurt that the rest of the film was fantastic too. Anyone else notice that there was always ringing in any tense scene?

well, whenever something exploded nearby, yeah.

fucking amazing cinematography. good god.

Mojo_Jojo

What was the reasoning behind the massive delay in this film getting released in the states?

Oddly enough the people I went to see this with were fairly unimpressed for some reason. Fools.

DarkPrimus

Loren Michael wrote:

did anyone else catch Life in a Glasshouse playing in the background at the house?

Yes.

After the film, I turned to my friends and said "You realize that Jasper is what we will want to be in twenty years, right?"

MrMister

I loved how it was set against an ostensibly epic sci-fi backdrop, but it never overindulged itself, and instead maintained an incredibly restrained minimalist perspective, focusing almost completely on Clive Owens and his immediate situation.

Anarchy Rules!

You'vre got to admire them for casting Micheal Caine as a hippy

Tomanta

I saw this yesterday (after waiting since the reviews started to roll in) and I was amazed from the first scene to the last. Lengthy one-shots are difficult to pull off, and adding in as many actors and effects that were in these (including what I'm assuming are some "one chance" shots involving explosions) I'm just stunned.

matt has a problem

Evil Multifarious wrote:

Man, those long shots made the movie so intense. There was no relief. You could only unwind when the shot was over, and some were like a half goddamn hour long. Fantastic.

[spoiler:6b3d954f32]One of the last scenes, from when they come into the battlezone right to when Luke shoots Theo, is all one shot. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.[/spoiler:6b3d954f32]

Genius film, one of my favourites by far.

It was actually two shots, cleverly edited together using a pass over darkness as cover. Watch the blood on the camera lense, in the stairwell as the camera pans left-right over a dark area, it disappears.

Zzulu

This movie is very poorly marketed. I would never ever had heard of it if it wasn't for the PA forums.

Look Out it's Sabs!

I only saw one commercial for this movie and this was when I went to see Apocolypto, and it only took one commercial for me wanting to go see it.

This movie was amazing, Sid was pretty funny, and there were lots of great fighting scenes and tense scenes.

[spoiler:09c33deaa1]The part when they are escaping from the Fish's house was pretty tense. Of course I couldn't help but laugh inside that they are escaping in a car rolling down the hill.[/spoiler:09c33deaa1]

Jasper is awesome, zen music and lots of weed.

geckahn

The last 30 minutes of this movie were so fucking intense. I was freaking out.

Excellent movie. Absolutely loved it.

Evil Multifarious

The ending:

[spoiler:cc6391dce6]Was anyone else thinking "Oh my god, show the boat. You have to show the boat. It would be just like a movie like this to not show the boat and leave us guessing, but you have to give us the boat, man." And then they did, and I let out an audible sigh of relief.[/spoiler:cc6391dce6]

geckahn

Evil Multifarious wrote:

The ending:

[spoiler:b96ab60b17]Was anyone else thinking "Oh my god, show the boat. You have to show the boat. It would be just like a movie like this to not show the boat and leave us guessing, but you have to give us the boat, man." And then they did, and I let out an audible sigh of relief.[/spoiler:b96ab60b17]

yeah. I was about to flip the fuck out if he pulled that shit. He knew better then to try that trick though.

Drunk_caterpillar

You really have to wonder though. I mean, what the Hell was making everyone infertile? I think I'd give my left nut to know at this point.

Invisible

Zzulu wrote:

This movie is very poorly marketed. I would never ever had heard of it if it wasn't for the PA forums.

I saw several commercials for it. USA even played the trailer during its New Year's day Monk marathon. I had only occasionally heard the name mentioned and wasn't that interested in it until I saw that commercial. I plan on going to see it tomorrow, because by then all the kiddies will finally be back in school and I can drive in peace.

matt has a problem

Evil Multifarious wrote:

The ending:

[spoiler:74ca99c4ce]Was anyone else thinking "Oh my god, show the boat. You have to show the boat. It would be just like a movie like this to not show the boat and leave us guessing, but you have to give us the boat, man." And then they did, and I let out an audible sigh of relief.[/spoiler:74ca99c4ce]

Honestly, I think that by ending it that way, he left it up to interpretation even more than if [spoiler:74ca99c4ce]it had ended with them in the rowboat. No one even really knew who the Human Project were. The info on them was sketchy at best. The only info you were given in the movie is that they were some kind of non-government group that apparently wanted to help. But help why? For all we know they're actually a government org, operating outside the realm of accountability, set up to stop the infertitilty by any means necessary.[/spoiler:74ca99c4ce]

Incenjucar

Drunk_caterpillar wrote:

You really have to wonder though. I mean, what the Hell was making everyone infertile? I think I'd give my left nut to know at this point.

Gay Marriage?

CheerfulBear

Incenjucar wrote:

Drunk_caterpillar wrote:

You really have to wonder though. I mean, what the Hell was making everyone infertile? I think I'd give my left nut to know at this point.

Gay Marriage?

At last, the gay agenda is truly revealed.

matt has a problem

Drunk_caterpillar wrote:

You really have to wonder though. I mean, what the Hell was making everyone infertile? I think I'd give my left nut to know at this point.

The movie talked about a flu pandemic that happened worldwide about the same time women went infertile, the one that [spoiler:c99591fa8a]killed Theo's and Julian's baby.[/spoiler:c99591fa8a]

So it could've had an infertilizing effect on women, too.

Incenjucar

Certainly, there are viruses that have been known to insert themselves in to genomes, and to meddle with sexual organs like crazy.

Some of them even turn male arthropods in to, essentially, females.

Some viruses go too far and wipe out their hosts, of course.

TankHammer

I saw it last night and enjoyed it. The ending was a little sub-par but the journey there and some of the imagery (especially the continuous camera shots) was awesome.
Whoever made the movie had a great taste in music. I said "all right!" when I saw the flying pig over the power station (a reference to Pink Floyd's Animals). Worth the price of admission most definitely but very brutal and super-real with its violence.

Evil Multifarious

I think this movie re-sensitizes people to violence. The whole audience let out a pained groan when

[spoiler:f2b43231e4]Theo smashed Sid's face with a car battery. That was fucking brutal. The sound of it.[/spoiler:f2b43231e4]

SirNick

matthasaproblem wrote:

Evil Multifarious wrote:

Man, those long shots made the movie so intense. There was no relief. You could only unwind when the shot was over, and some were like a half goddamn hour long. Fantastic.

[spoiler:52027ccf41]One of the last scenes, from when they come into the battlezone right to when Luke shoots Theo, is all one shot. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.[/spoiler:52027ccf41]

Genius film, one of my favourites by far.

It was actually two shots, cleverly edited together using a pass over darkness as cover. Watch the blood on the camera lense, in the stairwell as the camera pans left-right over a dark area, it disappears.

Not quite, from what I hear. I seems to be a one-shotter indeed.

Got this from the SE++ "Children of Men" thread.

catalyst wrote:

I found this pretty awesome:

[spoiler:52027ccf41]Is the combat scene a single take?

Yes. Even though the blood on the lens disappears after a short time, the entire sequence is one take. There are no invisible cuts. Cuaron said, "The blood was great, but after a while, it started to feel like it was on your face." He hired a digital artist to remove it, and they had to go frame by frame to do so.[/spoiler:52027ccf41]

Still, my thoughts on the movie consist of "HOLY SHIT."

Azarius

I'm going tonight. I was supposed to go the other day, but we ended up having too many beers at the bar during dinner to make it in time.

Looking forward to it...

Sami

I loved the foreshadowing when

[spoiler:2b87e3f6ef]everyone was standing in awe of the baby, but the fighting started up again in no time. so even if people started having babies again, it wouldn't fix the violent nature of humanity[/spoiler:2b87e3f6ef]

Rhesus Positive

Sami wrote:

I loved the foreshadowing when

[spoiler:ea5312415e]everyone was standing in awe of the baby, but the fighting started up again in no time. so even if people started having babies again, it wouldn't fix the violent nature of humanity[/spoiler:ea5312415e]

That was one of my favourite points for me, too, along with the realisation that Theo was wearing a [spoiler:ea5312415e] London 2012 Olympics sweater.[/spoiler:ea5312415e] It was those touches that really sold the film for me, as London and England's character was still visible.

Was anybody else reminded of A Handmaid's Tale while watching this? The ending in particular, for me.

TankHammer

Rhesus Positive wrote:

Sami wrote:

I loved the foreshadowing when

[spoiler:1c2940b5d3]everyone was standing in awe of the baby, but the fighting started up again in no time. so even if people started having babies again, it wouldn't fix the violent nature of humanity[/spoiler:1c2940b5d3]

That was one of my favourite points for me, too, along with the realisation that Theo was wearing a [spoiler:1c2940b5d3] London 2012 Olympics sweater.[/spoiler:1c2940b5d3] It was those touches that really sold the film for me, as London and England's character was still visible.

Was anybody else reminded of A Handmaid's Tale while watching this? The ending in particular, for me.

I noticed what you refer to in your spoiler and I loved the subtlety.

Prohass

[spoiler:c37893727d]The Car Battery, my god, i've seen it three times and everyone in the cinema flinches and jumps and lets out a yelp every time. I love how after that Clive own steps on a rock and cuts his foot, and he's limping, its just this insane level of reality that seeps into your mind.[/spoiler:c37893727d]

I loved how it was set against an ostensibly epic sci-fi backdrop, but it never overindulged itself, and instead maintained an incredibly restrained minimalist perspective, focusing almost completely on Clive Owens and his immediate situation.

This is what I got from it aswell. It lends to the Halflife comparisons also, you only learn and see what Clive Owen learns and sees.

matt has a problem

Evil Multifarious wrote:

I think this movie re-sensitizes people to violence. The whole audience let out a pained groan when

[spoiler:8b31fe4eaa]Theo smashed Sid's face with a car battery. That was fucking brutal. The sound of it.[/spoiler:8b31fe4eaa]

See, I totally expected that to happen. [spoiler:8b31fe4eaa]When Theo got stuck on the door, and managed to squeeze his way out right as Syd had reloaded and started shooting, yet the door still wasn't "open". As soon as Theo was out of the door, I knew he'd turn and stop Syd somehow, either by kicking the door as Syd was halfway through it, or bashing him with something.[/spoiler:8b31fe4eaa]

I went "Ooooh" when it happened, but more of an exclamation of "bad-ass" than "oh jeez that's disturbing."

bernbaum

Evil Multifarious wrote:

The camera work was really reminiscent of FPSs like Half Life 2. The way it would peek around corners, the way events would sort of spill onto the camera, not to mention how the whole setting and look was very HL2, it was all really eerily familiar.

Reminiscences of Half Life 2 first became prevalent for me when:

[spoiler:925ccf0d8f]Owen arrives on the Train and is ushered through the Razorwire fences past all the people being cordoned off by the police[/spoiler:925ccf0d8f]

Half Life 2 comparisons aside however, this was my film for 2006. Its a shame all you North Americans had to wait.

And I'm sure you all would have noticed:

[spoiler:925ccf0d8f]The blindfolded man in the background off the jail being strung up by electric wires, a direct representation of photos from Abu Ghraib[/spoiler:925ccf0d8f]

Prohass

I dont think that many people are as composed when seeing that sequence, [spoiler:fa6c1324d4]I was just tense and gripped, it didnt so much shock, as the sound and effect it had. I mean, he just fucking died, thwack, it was visceral and brutal.[/spoiler:fa6c1324d4]

Evil Multifarious

I think the videogame/FPS feel of the movie really comes from those long shots; it feels like you are there, participating, or at least actively watching, running along behind him, because the camera is omnipresent instead of hopping around from face to face and location to location.

TankHammer

Evil Multifarious wrote:

I think the videogame/FPS feel of the movie really comes from those long shots; it feels like you are there, participating, or at least actively watching, running along behind him, because the camera is omnipresent instead of hopping around from face to face and location to location.

The long shot at the end with the blood on the lens had me thinking Gears of War and the fences were very HL2. It was immersing especially with the hollow echo of gunfire.
[spoiler:5b23a8d7a7]
The biggest shocker of the whole film for me wasn't Sid getting cracked. It was the American girlfriend getting popped in the first half. I also got very creeped-out when they dragged Miram off the bus and Clive was like "It's okay, she'll be okay" and they're putting a black hood on her, then you never see her again, but it takes you along a line of people being tortured and executed. It was awful.[/spoiler:5b23a8d7a7]

Hoz

I didn't believe any movie could make me feel like this anymore. I knew it'd be good, but not that good.

Loren Michael

so, i have a new favorite director.

MikeMan

This movie was fucking amazing.

Holy fucking shitcock.

Kusuguttai

Loren Michael wrote:

so, i have a new favorite director.

I didn't think he was that good after seeing how he mangled Prisoner of Azkaban, but hot damn

DarkPrimus

Guys, you have no idea how often I clicked on D&D looking for the Children of Men thread, only to remember it was in SE++. It's about damn time. :P