'Children of Men', the new Alfonso Cuaron sci-fi flick

so what's the deal, they get the girl's baby to safety, so "the plan" for redeveloping the population then is to bottleneck the entire human species through it? wouldn't that ultimately mung-ify us all? better than nothing, is that what we're supposed to accept?

We know nothing about "the plan" other than, you know, the first child in 18 years has been born and maybe that would be a good place to poke around for a solution. Anything beyond that is stuff you're making up in your own mind.

I think it speaks well for Children of Men that nearly every major criticism I've read is due to either misunderstanding or imposing unnecessary conditions from the outside.

Totally didn't notice that that was Peter Mullan, which increases my regard for him.

Yeah, it was the oposite of this.

It's worth noting that we don't even know that this is the first child in 18 years... it's never made clear exactly what the human project is, and I sort of thought that there might be more than just one mother and baby.

cat clawing onto clive owen's leg = AWESOMENESS

If there's one thing I'd criticize about this otherwise wonderful movie, it's that the kitten was criminally underutilized.

p.s., the sci-fi parody linked to by Fluffy Bear etc upthread really is very funny.

when they were smoking w33d the first time and telling jokes about scientists munching stork.

but yeah, an amazing, film. "emotionally draining" is otfm.

A big thing this movie accomplished for me, and what I think it accomplishes for probably just about everyone who sees it, is the feeling of what War is Really Like. Never knowing peace, always being on the move, life being very very cheap, having crowds and movements and passionately violent people always around the next corner saying some stuff you agree with, a lot of stuff you don't, and you not really knowing how to handle it, not feeling equipped to deal. It's what people in Iraq live with every day but I can't think of an article or television report which has made me feel it the way that this movie did.

Today it came to me. In the New Testament, Romans 15:10, I believe (might be 10:15 - it's been a long time since Bible college), says, in part, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace."

It just seems appropo, somehow.

He washes Theo's feet and dies for him the next day. There are probably more (maybe not).

There's a line about them being a collective of scientists working on the infertility problem, right? I thought that was enough. Obviously they're the ones to get this miracle woman to, for study.

I didn't have a clear answer when my friend asked me afterwards why they didn't let the government know. Just because she's an immigrant? Surely the government would value a baby more than they would hate an immigrant, right? Since the hatred of immigrants stemmed from a loss of hope, at least indirectly, and this baby would be hope, and Britain would have something suddenly that no other country did. Right? That's a great deal of hand to have.

I dunno. Apparently not.

A lot of the "but this wasn't explained" questions seem a little weird to me, especially when it comes to the stuff that totally was explained: e.g., going to the government is precisely what Owen is suggesting in the kitten-claws bit! To which everyone responds that they'll take away the baby and deport Ki, which she and Miriam are against for obvious moral/personal reasons, and the Fish are pushing because of their own baby-having agenda.

When this ended and the title flashed back up, someone behind me snorted derisively, and then, when the title gave way to credits, two other people snorted exactly the same way. I'm a tad mystified by this: it's laid out pretty clearly that the scope of the thing is "we must get her to the boat," so ... what, were they hoping for an extra fifteen minutes of montage where it's all like "hooray, we have sorted out the baby problem, and everything is going back to normal now?"

P.P.S.: As far as Christian overtones go, I feel like this was fairly light on them, considering how much the scenario jumps up and down screaming "hello I am totally wide open for as much Christian-overtone pushing as you could possibly want to do" (and considering the director was born / raised / educated in Mexico, where surely Virgin Mary-tales are going to loom large in your experience and imagination no matter where you wind up in terms of religion).