Children of Men (HD DVD) (2006)

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General		Extras
Category	Adventure	Menu Animation & Audio On-Screen Information Track-U Control: PIP Interviews & Behind the Scenes Footage (HD) Deleted Scenes-(3) Featurette-Making Of-Creating the Baby Featurette-Making Of-Futuristic Designs Featurette-Theo & Julian Featurette-Men Under Attack Featurette-Possibility of Hope Interviews-Crew-Comments by Slavoj Zizek (Writer) Screen Saver
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	109:02
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Alfonso Cuarón
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Clive Owen Julianne Moore Michael Caine Chiwetel Ejiofor Charlie Hunnam Claire-Hope Ashitey Pam Ferris Danny Huston
Case	Amaray Variant
RPI	?	Music	John Tavener

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 French Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 Italian Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 German Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 Catalan Dolby Digital Plus 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired French Italian German Catalan Dutch Portuguese	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    In 2027, all humanity is in deep despair. Not a single human being has been birthed in more than eighteen years, in fact the youngest human alive was recently murdered by a crazed fan when he refused to sign an autograph. Societies all over the world are crumbling, and with hoards of refugees banging at the gate of every civilized western nation, Britain closes its borders and begins deporting illegals, foreigners, or anyone without the correct paperwork. The government has cleverly passed legislation making it a crime to avoid fertility tests, and they also promote suicide in a handy do-it-yourself kit dubbed Quietus, promising cash bonuses to relatives left behind. In a society with nothing left to live for, such schemes are obviously attractive to the weak willed, a facet of humanity that in this society has no shortage.

    Theo Faron (Clive Owen) is an everyman, a depressed gambler and perpetually hung over, he's stuck in a job he hates and has debts that are beyond his financial ability. While on his way to work one morning he is kidnapped by the Fishes, a network of political activists that focus on the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. It turns out their leader is his former lover, Julian (Julianne Moore), and she asks Theo to assist in transporting a young refugee girl to a medical research facility aboard a ship called The Tomorrow. When the Fishes' intentions turn out to be less than honourable, Theo finds a purpose and takes it upon himself to escort the girl to the ship, due to stop at a weather buoy off the coast of Bexhill. Problem is, Bexhill has become a military fortress; an established refugee camp housing all manner of races in squalid conditions. With the government, police and over-zealous political activists trying to kill them at every turn, could it be possible that the girl, a young, black refugee that represents everything that is feared by Britain, holds a secret that has the potential to unite the entire human race? Will hope prevail?

    Based on a story by P.D. James, Alfonso Cuaron's direction is hyper-realistic and very tense. Shots that utilise handheld cameras follow the action closely in a documentary style and carry on for a long time without cutting. Blood often splatters on the camera lens, adding a fantastic touch of realism. The ensemble cast is exceptional, with Moore and Owen joined by Michael Caine as Jasper, Theo's Dad, an ageing, pot-headed hippy and retired political cartoonist.

    For me personally, the film's strength lies in its ability to relate to past and current affairs. Viewers of any generation or nationality are certain to find aspects of the story that appeal in some way, and I'm certain the film's audience will grow immensely over time. The vast attention to detail in the production design elevates the film to a level I normally reserve for classics such as Blade Runner or Brazil, and Children of Men comfortably sits among them in my opinion. This is a fantastic film that deserves to be seen by everyone, young or old.

    The SD DVD release was reviewed by my colleague, DanielB, here.

Video

    This is an overall nice HD transfer, true to the film's theatrical exhibition as I remember it. The film has been transferred to HD DVD at a resolution of 1080p, in its intended theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, in a native 16x9 frame.

    My memories of seeing the film at my local cinema are of a slightly grainy, yet realistic appearance to the print, and that is precisely what is presented here. The level of grain is never obtrusive, in fact it forms part of the film's overall character. The unfortunate downside of this fact is that the image will never be as razor sharp as some other HD transfers, but this is the way the film was meant to be seen. I have no doubt that this transfer far exceeds its standard definition counterpart.

    The image boasts great examples of foreground detail in facial close-ups and the like, such as the realistic detail on the floor rug at 50:14. There are a great deal of important dark, shadowy scenes in the film and these are handled superbly. Blacks are deep and jet when need be.

    Most colours in the film consist of washed out, industrial grays and dirty browns, particularly in the London scenes. As the film moves to the countryside, there are some contrasting lush greens and superb forest detail to be found. Blood reds are deep and bold, while skin tones are similarly realistic.

    The video transfer has been compressed using the VC-1 codec, with no major issues of concern that I can see. The thick fog towards the end of the film seems to exaggerate the presence of grain (91:15), however, when the fog reaches its thickest at 96:21 there is no noise to be seen at all. The pale view through the windscreen of the car at 56:06 is one of the most glaring examples of grain that I could see, but keep in mind that with my reviewing cap on I was looking hard for these things. Film artefacts are barely an issue, just the odd spec of dirt here and there.

    An English subtitle stream is included for the hearing impaired. The text is relatively accurate, although a few lines of inconsequential foreign language dialogue are not translated for some reason.

    This disc is a dual layered format (HD-30).

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are five soundtracks accompanying this film on HD-DVD, four of which are foreign language dubs. The default soundtrack is determined by the viewer's selection in the initial language setup menu. I listened to the film's original English audio, which is presented here in Dolby Digital Plus 5.1.

    The first thing that struck me about the English audio is its very low level. I was forced to increase the volume of my receiver way beyond my normal listening level in order to reach a volume I was satisfied with. When compared directly with the foreign language dub soundtracks, I calculated the film's original English language audio to be about 10 to 12db quieter - a significant difference. This disc has a Deluxe Digital promo placed after the final credits, which will blow you out of your seat if you don't adjust your volume in advance. You've been warned!

    Once the output volume has been compensated for, this is a very pleasing surround experience. Specific directional effects such as passing vehicles and gunshots are especially crisp and full of depth, ringing from every channel. Character voices are panned relative to the action on screen, for example, while traveling in a car, if a character speaks from the back seat we hear the voice in the appropriate rear channel. The rear channels are also utilised for atmospherics such as street noise and barking dogs, as well as the fantastic score. The only thing missing is an uncompressed option, such as PCM or TrueHD. A broader soundtrack encoding could have done great justice to the film's sound design.

    The dialogue is prominent in the mix and usually easy to discern above effects and score. There are no ADR or lip sync issues in the slightest.

    The film's original theme is titled Fragments of a Prayer, a moving operatic piece composed by John Tavener. The remainder of the film's musical score is occupied by classic rock artists such as King Crimson, John Lennon, Deep Purple and an hilariously apt closing song by Jarvis Cocker.

    The subwoofer does a fantastic job of accentuating gunfire, explosions and the like. There are a number of scenes of intense conflict that will shake your lounge room, providing you crank the volume appropriately.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    In comparison to the feature, the extras are very loud - including the menu. Keep this in mind when you're toggling between extras and the film. This edition includes all of the extras from the SD release, and more. The U-Control feature is the only extra presented in HD.

Menu

    A language select menu loads first, followed by the main menu. The menu page is animated with clips from the film, with audio. The menu navigation is generic, along the lines of other Universal HD DVD titles. The disc is also coded with a handy progress bar that appears whenever the film is paused or skipped.

Screen Saver

    A standard feature on Universal titles, the screen saver appears when the film is paused for a few minutes or the menu is left to rotate a number of times.

U-Control (HD)

    This interactive component is split into three categories, each represented by a different watermark icon on screen.

• Short featurettes that include cast and crew interviews and behind the scenes footage. I counted about fifteen altogether, about a third of which is duplicated from the other featurettes on the disc.
• Still content such as billboard posters and fictional newspaper clippings. The headlines are readable, but the articles themselves are not.
• Commercials and adverts that were made for the film. These range from beverages and pet clothing to government subsidized organ harvesting and sexual enhancement (the Niagra is a classic). The Quietus commercial seems to be repeated a lot, which is strange - perhaps for those who missed it earlier.

    The viewer is bombarded by content in the first half hour, so much so that it would be impossible to see all of the features without back-tracking. After that initial rush of information, the remainder of the film is very slim pickings. Almost half an hour goes by mid-film with no additional content. That said, this is a great inclusion for HD devotees, with lots of extra footage of Michael Caine to be found.

Gallery- U-Control Tutorial

    This is the first disc I have experienced with this handy tutorial. It's simply five pages of still graphics with tips and shortcuts on how to make the most of the feature. I learned that the U-Control feature can be easily toggled on and off via the A button on the remote while the film is playing. Handy!

Deleted Scenes (2:21)

    Three additional scenes are presented here, which amount to nothing more than unnecessary padding that is not missed in the final cut.

Featurette- Futuristic Designs (8:37)

    The film's production design was surprisingly detailed and labor intensive, as is explained here by the talented crew who pieced the film's 'look' together.

Featurette- Theo and Julian (4:40)

    Specifically examines the characters played by Clive Owen and Julianne Moore.

Featurette- Men Under Attack (7:35)

    Cast and crew discuss the film's visual style and how the intricately staged long takes were precisely orchestrated.

Featurette- The Possibility of Hope (27:14)

    Slavoj Zizek and several other social critics examine the metaphors within the film, its warnings of globalisation and the acceleration of contact between races. The interviewees also discuss migration and the impact of the human population on our planet. A lot of theorizing and speculating here, but unfortunately not a lot of entertaining.

Interview- Slavoj Zizek (5:44)

    The philosopher and social critic expands on his own interpretations of Cuaron's work, some of which is duplicated from the above featurette.

Featurette- Creating the Baby (3:06)

    The most interesting of all the featurettes, this short piece illustrates the fantastic CG effects that were used to create the tense birthing scene.

    The video transfer is faithful to the theatrical exhibition.

    The audio transfer is very low in volume. A PCM or TrueHD option would have been ideal.

    The extras are worthwhile viewing, with some exclusive to HD DVD.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall