Went and saw this today. Fans of end-of-times movies (Bill B, I'm
talking to you), great news - this is the best one yet.

It's the near future. Women are infertile. There are no more
children, and no prospects for procreation. The youngest people on
the planet are 18. Schools lay fallow in disrepair. Nations are
collapsing. Britain still operates as a police state, and has closed
its borders to all immigrants - only British citizens are allowed to
live there. Illegals are rounded up and sent who-knows-where; they
are badly treated. Radicals violently protest this injustice, and
terrorism is a daily fact of life. You risk your life simply getting
a cup of coffee. The end is nigh, the end is nigh!

Against this backdrop, we get both a superb action plot and a
high-impact human drama, that rarest of motion pictures. I shall
reveal no more and leave the pleasures of the intricate story to the
viewer. It's expertly directed by Alfonso Cuaron ("Harry
Potter/Prisoner of Azkaban", "Y Tu Mama Tambien"), who also co-wrote a
brilliant screenplay. The genius of the movie is in the pacing - it
starts out fairly sedate with an interesting examination of the world
as it exists at that time, and gradually ratchets up the tension until
by the end we can hardly stand it any more. The characters are deep
and memorable, the dialogue is rich and natural, and the machinations
of the plot are unpredictable and pack a great payoff. The acting
(Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine among many others) is
nothing short of immersive. Our "hero" is no Superman, and he spends
most of the movie just doing the best he can, which makes him very
appealing. The effects are utterly seamless. They're so well
integrated you can't even tell what's an effect and what's not. This
is no Hollywood picture; there is no melodrama and the camera doesn't
flinch from anything, nor does the script ever resort to cliche or
convention. In fact, quite early on, it clearly signals that anything
goes. The cinematography is top-notch, easily the best I've ever seen
in this genre. The soundtrack is suitably downbeat and never gets in
the way.

Like I said, best "world apocolypse" movie yet. Better than "28 Days
Later", better than "Dawn of the Dead", way better than "Night of the
Comet". The whole production is triple-A, and a major artistic
achievement for Cuaron and his crew. 4 stars out of 4.

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Mike Kohary mike at kohary dot com http://www.kohary.com

Karma Photography: http://www.karmaphotography.com
Seahawks Historical Database: http://www.kohary.com/seahawks
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