Thursday, January 11, 2007

The closest we'll probably ever get to a Y: The Last Man movie

Today I watched Children of Men, which was a really fucking good movie. I'll probably revise my top ten list for the year after I see a few more of the movies that technically came out in 2006, but this one will definitely be on the final list, most likely in the top five. Damn. It's directed by Alfonso Cuaron, and that guy is amazing. It's full of all these really long takes, following characters in scenes that must have been ridiculously hard to set up. One scene follows Clive Owen down a street, around corners, in and out of a bus, repeatedly ducking behind obstacles (oh yeah, there's shooting and explosions going on all around him), and then into a building and up several flights of stairs, all with people running all over the place. There had to be hundreds of actors, just in that one scene. It seems like it lasts forever, and it's all in one take. Amazing. And that's just on a technical level; the story, setting, acting, and cinematography are all excellent. It takes place in 2027, eighteen years after people stopped being able to have babies. It's never explained, but for some reason, women stopped being able to get pregnant, and the world has devolved into chaos. Most of the world's governments have collapsed, and only England is still standing (or so the TV ads say), with an oppressive government that has closed off sections of the country, and won't let in any immigrants. Clive Owen ends up having to escort this woman, who it turns out is somehow pregnant, out of the country. He gets recruited to do this by a resistance movement led by his ex-wife, played by Julianne Moore (who is really good, as always). As can be expected, shit goes down, lots of problems happen, and we end up taking a tour of a sort of post-apocalyptic England. I'm still organizing my thoughts about it, but it is one damn good movie. Michael Caine plays an older, hippie friend of Owen's, and Chiwetel Ejiofor is another leader of the resistance; they're also both very good. The world Cuaron has created here is very realistic, and quite horrifying. It's a really amazing movie. I'm repeating myself now, so I'll stop blabbering and just reemphasize that everyone should see it.

4 comments:

  1. Hello
    Do you know this french graphic novel by Terry Dodson ?
    http://www.bedetheque.com/serie-14496-BD-Songes.html
    or
    http://www.humano.com/catalogue/fiche_catal.php?id=35239

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  2. No, I hadn't seen or heard anything about it. The art looks beautiful. I only know Terry Dodson from American superhero books like Spider-Man and Wonder Woman. This looks amazing. Unfortunately, I don't speak or read French. If this gets released in the US, I would be interested in picking it up.

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  3. I had only read Spider-Man/Black Cat The evil that men do and some Harley Quinn of Dodson. His women look like Frank Cho's women (Liberty meadows & Shanna). I'm happy to read your blog because in France, it's difficult to speak with some passionate person about good comics.

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  4. Hey, thanks for stopping by and commenting. If you're interested in discussion of comics, check out some of the links on my sidebar. And of course, feel free to comment here anytime.

    I agree that Dodson draws women similarly to Frank Cho. Another guy who also likes to draw women is Adam Hughes. He mostly does cover art, but sometime in 2007 he will be writing and drawing All-Star Wonder Woman.

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