The ending of Children of Men…

… could have been a lot better. I just finished watching the movie, and I while I thought it was a pretty good movie, I would have liked a more solid ending. What I expected was the boat finding Kee, and then a brief segment showing the future: the Human Project area, with more people having kids, perhaps showing some signs that civilization might return to its pre-crisis state, etc. Instead I was given an ending showing the boat finding Kee, Theo being dead, and.. well, that was it! Kee and her baby got away, but I would have liked a bit more.

I don’t know if the movie was meant to be a blend of sci-fi / horror, but I actually found Children of Men to be pretty terrifying, moreso than most “real” horror movies. (Actually, I find a lot of “real” horror movies to just be stupid, but I digress.) Why? Because what it depicted really could happen. I’m not talking about the infertility issue (even though I suppose that, too, could happen), but instead, I’m talking about the general condition of the world. The totalitarian Britain that was depicted just creeped me out. It reminded me way too much of what I know about Nazi Germany.

A few pointless but fun asides about the movie:

• I recognized the fellow that played Syd, Peter Mullan, as the guy who gave one of the speeches to the Scottish soldiers in Braveheart. The speech he gave was the one with “We don’t have to die for these bastards, let’s go home!” in it. And yes, I was totally addicted to Braveheart. I’ve seen it many, many times.
• There were a few nods toward Buddhism in the movie. One of the things that Kee and her female protector (I don’t recall her name) kept chanting in the car was Om Mani Padme Hung, probably the most well-known Tibetan Buddhist mantra. Jasper, the old male friend of Theo, said “Shanti, shanti, shanti” a few times, which is also a Buddhist mantra. I couldn’t quite understand what Kee’s female friend was saying on the bus, when the guard was harassing her, but it sounded more like a Christian prayer than a Buddhist mantra. Whatever the religion was supposed to be, I liked the nods to Buddhism.