So, I saw Children of Men yesterday, and throughout the whole movie, I was completely amazed. The story, while still better than most any other movie out there, wasn’t the best I’ve ever heard. The cinematography, on the other hand…breathtaking. And the way the story was told.
But throughout the film, something kept nagging me, something I noticed awhile back when I first saw the trailer for it. The look of it, the feel of it, and even the general plot of it reminded me of Half-Life 2.
[ul]
[li]A post-apocalyptic world with an totalitarian government.[/li][li]Strong police presence.[/li][li]A resistance movement.[/li][/ul]
Granted, those three are pretty much intertwined, and they’re present in stories from Star Wars to 1984. More specifically:
[ul]
[li]Humanity not being able to procreate. While not a huge plot point in HL2, it still is mentioned that humans are no longer having children.[/li][li]Perspective that doesn’t leave the protagonist. Though Children of Men did abandon it once (to my recollection, there may have been a few more times), for the most part, the story was told through Theo’s eyes. Even as he was being drug along his path, things kept happening behind him. I remember a few things happening like this in HL2.[/li][li]The reluctant protagonist. I guess it’s not really reluctance in either stories, but that’s really the only word I can think of to describe it. It’s not that either Theo or Gordon are unwilling, it’s just that they don’t have much of a choice in how they go about doing things.[/li][/ul]
There’s a few other things I can think of, like Sid reminding me of Barney, even the way they both act when first introduced. Granted, Barney never turned on Gordon and crew. It was kinda hard not to notice it though, with the riot gear and all.
I’m not saying any of it was intentional, I just thought it was kind of an interesting thing, and wondering if anybody else noticed it. Any other similarities (between HL or anything, really)?