CHILDREN OF MEN - HD DVD review

Films about a not-so-distant apocalyptic future tend to focus on dystopian civilizations and totalitarian governments and the struggle for humanity to accept and reach their expected extinction from existence. George Orwell's "1984" and Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" are two classic examples of films that fall into this genre. George Lucas touched upon this subject matter with his early film "THX-1138." Terry Gilliam has made it an art form with the powerful "Brazil" and later "12 Monkeys." Animation's "Æon Flux" has found a big screen adaptation with similar overtones. In recent years, the number of films produced in this sub-genre of Science Fiction has slowed. With so much social discontent with various governments of the world today, this has been surprising. These films provide the perfect platform for suggesting the dangers of our current lifestyles. Recently, the genre has been bolstered with another classic entry where man faces annihilation at the hands of a global health outbreak.

The setting for Alfonso Cuarón's "Children of Men" is Great Britain in the year 2027. Mankind is being destroyed by an inability to reproduce and the youngest living human is over eighteen years old. The world is crumbling, as social ills have spread with far more destruction than any super-virus or modern day "Black Plague." The last country to hold some semblance of order is England and this is accomplished with a stringent police state and fascist government that has taken away many personal liberties to preserve control and a paper-thin order over the insanity that has swept over the remaining ninety-five percent of the world. Though the appearance is given to the general populace that England is a Utopia, it is far from it. The nation has become a martial-law driven society that persecutes any foreigners or non-British born citizens with death camps not far from the Nazi death camps of World War II.

In "Children of Men", Theo Faron is a former activist who lives a depressed state of being and acts as one of the sheep the government herds. He has lost a child and has come to accept that the End of Days quickly approach. His calm and peaceful world is shattered when a coffee shop he patrons is destroyed by a terrorist's bomb and his hearing is nearly destroyed. The rumors spread that the government was behind the bombing and these thoughts are reinforced when he is kidnapped by a former lover, Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore) and asked for a special favor. Theo and Julian had been a happy couple when the world was still right and had a baby together. Unfortunately, the baby succumbed to the ills that would soon eradicate fertility and they split and both became depressed beings.

Julian is now the leader of terrorist organization called the Fishes. She is public enemy number one for the British government and looks to Theo as the only person she can trust with a wonderful secret – a pregnant girl that may hold mankind's salvation. The girl, Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey), does not trust Theo at first and shows expressions of strong dislike towards the man Julian has trusted to escort her out of England and to a special boat and society called the Human Project. Theo is reluctant to aid Julian at first, until a large sum of money is dangled as persuasion. His involvement becomes far more serious when Kee reveals the secret of her pregnancy. Theo first enrolls the help of an old friend, Jasper Palmer (Michael Caine) to help get Kee to the boat that will take her to safety, but before long, Kee and Theo must find a trust of one another and find themselves alone in their plight to rescue Kee's baby from the mayhem that has engulfed England.

There was a lot of hype revolving around the futuristic nature of "Children of Men." This was one of the attractions I had originally held in wanting to see the film. The situation of the world and the dire straits that Theo, Julian and Kee find themselves in could happen in a future world, but aside from television and advertising technology, very little of "Children of Men" is reminiscent of a futuristic society nearing collapse. The environment is a destroyed, garbage-ridden world where vehicles look much as they do today, but with futuristic body panels. Aside from Japser's "Zen Music," the songs the characters listen today are songs that we enjoy in our present times. There was more trash and wreckage in "Children of Men" than there was in Gilliam's "Brazil," but both films took a similar approach to the future. It is gritty, dirty and violent. Dress attire, the big red busses of London and military hardware are all what we see today. In this regard, "Children of Men" feels like a problem that is society nearing the brink in a far more recent future than dated in the film.

Julianne Moore and Michael Caine have slim supporting roles in "Children of Men." Moore quickly exits the film with a surprising plot twist. Her involvement was important, but brief. Michael Caine is absolutely outstanding as the pot smoking hippie that hides refugees from the evil axis of law. He commands as much screen time as Moore, but is able to stick around deeper into the film. With the two biggest names having extended cameos, "Children of Men" completely relies on the strength of the performances from Clive Owen and Claire-Hope Ashitey. Ashitey's name doest not appear on the advertised credits, but she is the film's leading lady and the newcomer does a very good job. The growth of the relationship between Theo and Kee is a fine example of intertwined character development and Owen and Ashitey breathe true life into "Children of Men." This film is about them, their characters and it succeeds in large part to their performances.

"Children of Men" is a very good film that depicts a Dystopian society where any foreigner to the atomic society is cast away in a vile manner and where government resorts to fascist control in the face of impending extinction. The film looks at the dangers of a Big Brother society and shows how government control can be far more evil and destructive than a terrorist organization. This is not a film of enlightenment and certainly does not strive to neatly tie up the film's plot with a feel-good ending. In the film's world, where personal liberties are violated, where trash is almost ankle deep on city streets and where the military has every privilege to drive into a decrepit city section and pummel it to the ground with no regard to human life, "Children of Men" strives to keep the viewer uncomfortable with its apocalyptic message. There is no sugar-coating of the reality it paints. This has been a trademark of this science fiction sub-genre and the film keeps true to the conventions. Universal had forced Gilliam's hand with the theatrical release of "Brazil" and that storied failure of a feel-good film has been well documented. Of course, "Blade Runner" was hit with the same desire to make a happy ending to a dark and foreboding picture. Thankfully, "Children of Men" is allowed to stay dark, violent and unhappy.

Video:
"Children of Men" is presented as a HD-30 / DVD-9 Combo format release that provides a 1.85:1 VC-1/1080p transfer on the high definition side and an anamorphic standard definition presentation on the flip side. The world depicted in "Children of Men" is not a pretty world. It is dirty and it is ugly. The director and cinematographer strive to "keep it real" with close up camera work that finds the lenses splattered with blood and grime. With such a horribly wretched visual world that is not intended to look beautiful, "Children of Men" is not a visually appealing film. This is the sort of film that drives you to take a shower after watching it. It is that appalling to the eyes. The world of chaos and destruction features slightly desaturated colors and drab lighting. London is known for its rain and fog and "Children of Men" makes no attempt to show the sunshine. The film details a society that exists without hope, and the visual flavourings are perfectly in tune with the intended atmosphere of "Children of Men."

The HD-DVD picture quality is technically very sound and the level of detail is quite high and the subdued hues look very realistic. Every frame of "Children of Men" is visually busy with apocalyptic imagery. This allows for a wealth of detail and the transfer succeeds with flying colors. The outdoor scenes around Jasper's refugee camp show strong detail for each leaf and pebble and this is done with low lighting. You can read numerous headlines on the newspapers that are plastered and scattered everywhere. The blown out buildings of the concentration city for the foreigners show as much destruction as cities bombed during the Second World War. All of this is highly detailed. Black levels and shadow detail are strong and help delineate the features present on screen. There are no digital flaws to be found and any trace of non-purposeful dirt and grain are practically non-existent. For as ugly as the film is intended to be, it looks very good.

Sound:
Packaged with only a Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 soundtrack, "Children of Men" is still audibly impressive. The film's big climactic moments where Kee and Theo are under siege by a terrorist organization and the British military erupts with gunfire and explosions from every imaginable direction and all six channels help to convey this. The .1 LFE channel is very deep and powerful. This was very evident during this all-out war scene and another moment when Michael Caine's character turns on the "Zen Music," which brought the film from a relaxing peace to a violent orgy of sound. This film is about the decay of society and the ever-increasing violence and police force that struggles for control. This requires strong sound design and the Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix does more than its job in keeping "Children of Sound" up to the task. Dialogue is equally strong and the wonderful British accents are carried nicely to one's ears. This film is as audibly busy as it is visually and although I was hoping for a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack, I am more than pleased with this disc.

Extras:
"Children of Men" arrives on HD-DVD with all of the supplements from its standard definition release (which is glued to its backside) and Universal's U-Control "immersive entertainment experience." With no commentary tracks provided, the U-Control is the sole supplement that occurs while the film plays. Universal includes three aspects of their technology with "Children of Men." The Picture-in-Picture inclusions resize the film's main display window and a small pop-up picture populates the right margin and slightly overlaps the film. These moments occurred throughout the film and provided a good amount of information on the making of the film. The Info sections featured graphical displays of various signage and newspaper pages that appeared throughout the film. Sadly, they were difficult to read, but the headlines were very interesting. Finally, the U-Control provides Commercials. This was some of the better moments of the U-Control. I especially liked the Gap parody, Ruf, that featured very high priced fashions for animals. The commercials were mostly in the beginning third of the film, but they were quite entertaining. If only they could have occupied the entire screen.

The features that occupied both sides of the disc were plentiful and worth checking out. Some of the features spin it philosophical. The Possibility of Hope (27:14) is a lengthy documentary created by the film's director. This is not necessarily a production on the making of the film, but it deals with the social issues depicted in the picture. Some of the accents were hard to digest and this was a featurettes that would be embraced by many social studies or philosophy teachers. This was a deep and though provoking short film that brought a better understanding of the film, but it is not for the overly opinionated or those wanting to just be entertained with a story. The Children of Men Comments by Slavoj Zizek (5:44) felt like an extension of the larger "Possibility of Hope" as Social Critic and Philosopher Slavoj Zizek uses his heavy accent to force the viewer to pay amazingly close attention to every word he says.

A few more mainstream features are also included for "Children of Men." The always welcome Deleted Scenes were only 2:19 in length. These three scenes were short and added nothing to the picture, but I do enjoy deleted scenes. Under Attack (7:35) focuses on the camera takes used in the film. These very long takes were used to help reinforce the concept of real time. This made for a lot of hard work in bringing the scenes to life by Director of Photography Emmanuel Lubezki. Theo and Julian (4:40) looks at how the characters were influenced by the actors and how Clive Owen and Julianne Moore helped build their characters and actions. Futuristic Design (8:37) looks at the production design that brought the shabby and decrepit world of "Children of Men" to life. This was another good supplement that looked at the making of the film. Finally, Visual Effects: Creating the Baby (3:06) is a short look at the eerie CGI baby that helped create a convincing child birth sequence in the film and allowed for imagery of a baby being thrust into the world an carried through a major destructive offensive.

Closing Comments:
"Children of Men" is another fine entry into the Dystopian Future sub-genre of science fiction. It joins dignitaries "Brazil," "1984" and "Metropolis" as a depressed look at a world where life exists without hope and saddened eyes look to a horizon that only brings death. This is a film that looks as depressing as the story it weaves. Violence and Governmental control struggle for power and it is hard to decide which is the greater evil. Clive Owen and Claire-Hope Ashitey deserve a lot of praise for their acting performances and director Alfonso Cuarón has created a startling and powerful world for their characters to exist in. This study of social ills and the evils of a Big Brother government is a thought provoking and intense film that is deserving of the praise and accolades it has garnered.

The wretched visuals are done justice with a sharp looking HD-DVD transfer. The powerful and aggressive soundtrack delivers the conflict, pain and suffering with intensity. The supplements take slightly longer than an hour to sit through, but perfectly fit the feeling and message of the picture. Half of the supplements are directly geared to the philosophical questions raised by the film. The remaining entries look at how the film was created and the U-Control may not be as good as other Universal entries, but provides a nice interactive experience for viewers. This is a great HD-DVD that looks very nice sitting next to my Criterion Collection box set of "Brazil" and would fit nicely with almost any collection. This was certainly one of the better films of 2006 and one of the better HD-DVD releases thus far into 2007.