BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Anyone seen "Children of Men"?

Just wondering if anyone's seen the movie "Children of Men" and if so, what they thought of it? My husband wants to see it, but it doesn't sound that appealing to me.

Let's see, it's 2027 (not that far away) and humans can no longer procreate and the world has descended into chaos. Clive Owen has to shepherd a miraculously pregnant woman to a safe haven so her child can be the hope for the future. I know it's sci-fi so I'm supposed to suspend my disbelief, but I find it hard to go along with the story on this one because everyone I know is popping out babies just fine.

Eh, maybe I'm just a cranky, bitter, "childless" woman <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Seriously, if anyone has seen it, I'd like to know if it is any good...

Just like Western society to seize upon one of the most remote and unlikely consequences of pollution and global warming (wide-spread infertility) and make it the most-likely, leading-edge scenario.

Frankly, the polar bears drowning due to disappearing sea ice gets to me a lot more.

As a species, we're pretty damned selfish...

I just came back from the dump (yes, I live in the exurbs and make a trip to the dump/transfer station to dump trash and recyclables every few weeks). Everyone was raving about the 65 degree F weather we're having (it's January...in New Hampshire...it should be 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 degrees, maximum). I had to keep saying "Nice yes...worrying, even moreso".

A woman there said to me "I think this is just the beginning of what's going to happen" with a sort of vague smile on her face. She had a few kids in her minivan, likely her grandkids. I wanted to say to her "You say that like it's a good thing". I held back from saying it, sensing it would do no good other than making her angry. As she pulled away to another section of the recycling center, I noticed that she had a bumper sticker which said "Come the rapture, this car will be unmanned". Maybe that accounts for her fiddling while Rome burns...

Whatever one's religious views...why is it that people who supposedly have the most stake in the future of the planet (due to having kids and grandkids) seem, in general, to care the *least* about its fate?

*boggle*

Elise

I saw this movie on X-mas Day with my parents, and all three of us really enjoyed it. It's on the heavy side but I really liked how the characters had their transformations over the course of the story.

Clive Owen is excellent in this.

Yeah, I HATE that...

My husband actually believes in the end-of-the world thingie (I personally don't) but at least it plays into his half of the childfree decision. His logic: if the world is going down the tubes, don't bring more innocent people into the whole mess.

If you really think the world is going to end, why would you have a bunch of kids?? It makes zero sense to me. (Please note, parents: your children are not necessarily going to follow your religious practices.)

Anyway, with all due respect for others' religious beliefs, it is cruel and sadistic of that woman to think of something like global warming and the end of the world only in terms of her fate and that of her ilk. What about everyone else? Doesn't anyone care about human (and animal) suffering? What the heck ever happened to "love one another?"

By the way, getting back to the topic of the movie...

It doesn't sound too bad to me. The thing that annoys me about other people being pregnant is that *everyone* is doing it. (Cept us CFers.) Envisioning a fictional world where far fewer people are doing it is fine with me.

The theme was actually explored in an old videogame, Xenogears. For a time, the human race had a plummeting fertility rate; no one could have kids. A scientist created a daughter for himself and his wife. The child was somewhere between being biological and mechanical (she was made of nanomachines) and she was built to be about 6 years old from day one (she "grew up" later). I liked the idea because it completely bypassed the whole pregnancy/infancy thing.

Ditto for the movie A.I., where population was controlled due to scarcity of resources and people could adopt robot children, again skipping the infancy stage.

Ditto for the anime Chobits, where a scientist and his wife, unable to have kids, build teenage twin daughters (androids known as Chobits) instead of having real ones. (The Chobits are so much cuter than babies!!)


I think the whole theme is interesting. I like the movies/media where they come up with substitutes for children, rather than ones where the focus is on real children.

I saw "Children of Men" this weekend. I liked it, but I love apocalyptic, end of the world sci fi stuff. It is a very bleak and violent movie with lots of gun fighting, explosions, people dying, blood flying etc.
And as much as I don't want to have a child, I was not disturbed by the movie. I can totally see that if NOONE could have a child, that a pregnant woman would be something to be protective of...
However, the world had spiralled into a pretty NASTY place to be, so I don't know if adding children to that world would be a good thing. Is the survival of the human race at ANY cost a good thing? Also I did not quite understand why the people were so intent on destroying each other... we can't have kids any more so what is the point in living seemed to be the way people were thinking. Personally, I would still want to try to make the rest of MY life the best it could be.
Anyways... if you like futuristic shoot em up movies, you might like this one. It is certainly getting good reviews, and it is definitely a discussion starter. I would probably give it a 7/10. My favorite sci fi shoot em up, movie would still have to be "The Fifth Element" though.

I havent seen this movie but I think its a bit silly to take it seriously, it is a sci fi movie. I love science fiction but I dont take it seriously. Also I can see why a world where nobody could hve kids would be awful, even for the childfree. i might not want to raise a kid but Im not for having all of humanity die out eather.