2 scifi movies reviews

http://www.awn.com/articles/article/time-designing-new-kind-futureretro-la The last 2 movies I watched both scifi dealt with our cultural approach to immortality. Children of Men is better if you ask me, its more realistic and gritty, and set in the uk which is where I am born&bred. In Time is set in the usa and is more fiction based. CoM has humans become infertile; we age as the last generation, watching the world go to shit. IT has a different approach; everyone's dna is set to their bank account so that money becomes time and wealth is measured in longevity. At 25 you stop aging, but only for so long as you have credit; when that zero's you're dead. The movie is nearly film noir, based on a novel of the sf sub-genre this is so similar to so many other examples of (Minority Report is of the same ilk, the influence of PKD on In Time is evident), covering a few surprising bases as the story unfolds. It demands suspension of disbelief wheras by contrast, CoM has us grateful for our relative soft comforts. In Time was dated before its time because the Real World has already gone high-tech Orwellian Totalitarian beyond the books scope, making its unlikely story even less probable. it is a very enjoyable fantasy full of stereotype and cliche, with some stylish design innovation that itself makes possible some cutesy unique scenes. The big difference between the story and human psychemotions explored in these two movies is that In Time, the super-elite have a lifespan of hundreds of years where the ghetto slaves have literally minutes to work for their next paycheck while inflation creeps up steadily in the background to kill them off. Children of Men has its 'financially better off' caste, but they cannot reproduce either so the air of futility lacks the stress&hope based struggle of IT's societies. In Time is about personal responsibility to live a life worth living with the time we have left here. It asks; can we make a difference to the world? Given the chance to, would we? Children of Men shows us the scope between how worthless the life of the individual is in a world without a future. What area's of human culture that do not involve children, are worth pursuing to the bitter end? This apathy and personal irrelevance is compared directly to the sacrifices we make for children, even to the cost of our own lives. Children ARE the future. There is a natural morality in this which we all need to consider a lot more deeply. CHILDREN OF MEN http://www.putlocker.com/file/B9B49FD3FE38DE08#

first published on facebook 18.2.2012