I haven't been to a movie in a while. But I got the itch this weekend. There are a TON of movies out there that I want to see right now, and it was tough to pick one. But I narrowed it down to two: Pan's Labyrinth and Children of Men. I have been really excited about PL and it truly was my first choice, but COM won out for one reason and one reason only: It started an hour earlier.
Children of Men had many things going for it. Clive Owen, for my money is about the best thing Hollywood is offering right now. A manly gritty actor who makes me wish I was gay. I'm not sure that there is a character he has played that I haven't enjoyed. Children of Men may be his best yet.
I guess that the premise of this movie should be a little hokie. A future where the human race is tragically inflicted with infertility. The worlds youngest person, Baby Diego, is 18, but he is assassinated in the first five minutes of the movie. But the more I thought about it, the conditions necessary for a zygote to form are fragile ones. It wouldn't take much for such a situation to become a reality, and this is perhaps the power of Children of Men.
Take for example the plight of the Sea Otter. The only Sea-faring mammal to rely on fur rather than blubber for warmth, the Otter has been hunted to near extinction, faced extinction a second time with the introduction of DDT, and now faces it's most incredible challenge...a virus from the housecat that attacks breeding females! Otters may disappear from the planet because they cannot reproduce!
Or what about the book Adam's Curse by Brian Sykes that makes a case that the Y chromosome is degenerating over the millenia. Over time, men may dissappear all together.
Some studies have suggested that people are more likely to conceive males in the colder month, and females in the warmer months. But could Global Warming effect fertility rates? It is a very plausible scenario.
And ripe territory for a gripping Sci Fi tale. Enter Children of Men.
Wow.
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