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As 2027 is fast approaching, I’m sorry to say this Children of men may become an obsolete dystopian sci-fi film within the next decade. At the very least, and after rewatching Peacock’s dystopian thriller for the first time in years, I pray that writer/director Alfonso Cuarón takes the future as depicted in Children of men will never happen thanks to his adaptation of the cautionary tale told in PD James’ novel of the same name. It’s so easy (and fun) to think of the end times as an action-packed no-man’s-land with nitro trucks, mohawks, and flamethrowers, but Children of men‘with an approach that embraces the bleak socio-economic semantics of a world in need is the furthest entertainment you’ll see on the Peacock this week.
Barren In Every Sense Of The Word
Children of men centers on Clive Owen’s Thelonia “Theo” Faron, a downtrodden bureaucrat and ex-activist living a cynical life in a post-war United Kingdom that operates as a militarized police state. Facing the global infertility crisis commonwealth becomes desperate when “Baby” Diego (Juan Gabriel Yacuzzi), the world’s youngest living person, dies shortly after his 18th birthday. Willing to live out the rest of his days behind a desk, things change for Theo when he is kidnapped by an aggressive refugee rights group known as the Fishes, led by his ex-wife Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore).
Known to have been a force of nature as an activist before giving up his idealism, Theo is tasked with transporting Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey), the first woman to become pregnant in 18 years, to the still-elusive Human Project. Operating in complete secrecy, the Human Project is determined to solve the infertility crisis and needs to protect Kee at all costs. Although this sounds like quite a daunting task, it is worth mentioning Children of men (streaming enabled Peacock) is more complicated because Kee is a refugee and belongs in a concentration camp according to the government.
Unlikely comic relief
It’s not all doom and gloom children of men, however, as Michael Caine’s Jasper Palmer, he breaks the tension whenever he is seen on screen. Jasper—Theo’s old friend and the film’s eccentric voice of reason—with a head of long, flowing gray hair—doesn’t care how serious things get as long as someone tugs on his finger and shares his enthusiasm for a potent strain of marijuana he calls “Strawberry Cough” and in doing so, he helped Theo figure out his next steps.
Breathtaking cinematography
While the most convenient way to stream Children of men would be on a streaming services like Peacock, I strongly recommend watching it on a screen with a higher resolution than the average iPhone offers. Children of men it doesn’t shy away from long one-shot sequences that will have you on the edge of your seat as Theo and Kee run to safety from mortar blasts, militarized police and armed citizens belonging to the resistance.
When I watched recently Children of men on the Peacock with my projector, I’ll have to weigh in and say that the practical effects aren’t nearly as impressive as all the propaganda littering the roads, hanging over city streets on billboards and playing on the screens of armored buses. to constantly indoctrinate every citizen to follow the government’s orders as aggressively as possible. These background details are ubiquitous and make you feel like you’re living in a surveillance state as you absorb the story.
Streaming Children of Men
If you’re looking for dystopian science fiction an epic where the future is bleak, safe houses are not safe, and the streets are littered with propaganda and violence, but not without a glimmer of hope found among the ruins, then Children of Men should be the next movie on your watch list if you haven’t seen it yet. Even better, if you’ve already seen it, you’ve got a replay delay.
And when you need a post-apocalyptic palate cleanser, all you have to do is dig out your old ones Road warrior DVD and do some breathing exercises.
You can stream Children of men on the Peacock as of this writing.
