Beautifully filmed, wonderfully acted, great action…
…sadly not terribly coherent.
I didn’t get the feeling that it was deliberately subtle so much as that it couldn’t fit enough detail in to make it clear.
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Saw it last night. It was good. I didn’t find it incoherent, though a longer (at the expense of boring) version might cover more back story. It made sense to me until near the end.
(An attempt at a non-spoiler explanation)
Toward the end all these people start seeing something really amazing. They all look and say ooh-ahh, but then when a shot is fired, everyone seems to forget what they saw. If this were a real situation I would expect those people to act very differently, drop what they’re doing and protect the cool, amazing thing, with weapons or as human shields.
The Brits seem to be good at doing scary, grungy what-if stories of the future. Having been a battleground in WWII probably helped in that respect.
John, I know this is splitting hairs but I didn’t say that it was incoherent, but that it wasn’t terribly coherent. I think there is a difference. What I meant generally was that there is no question that everyone is interested in the “cool, amazing thing” to which you refer, but it is never clear exactly what the various sides hope to accomplish by controlling it. Nor is it ever made clear what the imprisonment of all the people so imprisoned in the movie has to do with humanity’s infertility; that aspect is certainly dramatic and in keeping with the current climate. But it was like a separate story line to me.
Anybody read the book?
I saw the film months ago at a screening here in L.A. where director Alfonso Curon (Who is Mexican, BTW) was there to talk about it. He also directed Y Tu Mama Tambien and Harry Potter 3. He is amazing.
I didn’t find it the least bit confusing or incoherent.
Did you guys all realize that the shot in the car was continous for about 7 minutes. The Director, and camera crew were all riding on the roof of the car. It really is an amazing technical feat. The story and all that’s pretty good too.
I hope it gets an Oscar nod for cinematography. Chivo is amazing.
As for the amazing thing. I think it’s because humans even in dire situations ar estill basically selfish creators who are going to worry more about their own survival even though it’s a fruitless endevour than taking care of the amazing thing.
Change the “thing” to oil, in today’s geopolitical situation. Same basic idea. I think it’s more about who has control, even though the end outcome should be about the same.
I didn’t read the book, which probably offers a lot more detail about the detainment camps and other things. Those people are illegal aliens. Because they are probably entering the country faster than they can be shipped out, they get put into one or more “locked” cities first.
But I don’t think the details really matter, as those are the kinds of things I picture happening if humanity loses its ability to continue. We’ll basically come up with new an different ways of killing each other, and ourselves, and trying to redistribute the wealth among who’s left over, even if it’s not for very long. Human nature is to act in ways contrary to what makes sense or is good for us, especially when we’re under stress our out of motivation.
The direcotr said it’s hardly based on the book so I don’t think reading the book would really help. I think the only thing they really took from the book is the whole the-human-race-is-infertile thing.