The A.V. Club by Keith Phipps

It's a heartbreaking, bullet-strewn valentine to what keeps us human.

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

Made with palpable energy, intensity and excitement, it compellingly creates a world gone mad that is uncomfortably close to the one we live in. It is a "Blade Runner" for the 21st century, a worthy successor to that epic of dystopian decay

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Rick Groen

Children of Men is a nativity story for the ages, this or any other.

Slate by Dana Stevens

I don't just mean it's one of the best movies of the past six years. Children of Men, based on the 1992 novel by P.D. James, is the movie of the millennium because it's about our millennium, with its fractured, fearful politics and random bursts of violence and terror.

The New York Times by Manohla Dargis

Children of Men may be something of a bummer, but it’s the kind of glorious bummer that lifts you to the rafters, transporting you with the greatness of its filmmaking.

Washington Post by Ann Hornaday

Working with his longtime cinematographer Emmanuel "Chivo" Lubezki, Cuaron creates the most deeply imagined and fully realized world to be seen on screen this year, not to mention bravura sequences that bring to mind names like Orson Welles and Stanley Kubrick.

Boston Globe by Wesley Morris

This is an extraordinary artistic breakthrough from a Mexican director who was already fearlessly good to begin with.

San Francisco Chronicle by Peter Hartlaub

Children of Men is Cuarón's run for freedom, with a riveting story, fantastic action scenes and acting so universally solid that even the dogs perform masterfully under his direction.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

It's a work of art that deserves a space cleared for its angry, nervous beauty.

Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer

At times the film is so supercharged that it glosses over the story's thematic richness and turns into a very high-grade action picture. But if that's the worst thing you can say about a movie, you're doing all right. The best thing to be said about Children of Men is that it's a fully imagined vision of dystopia.

L.A. Weekly by Scott Foundas

One of the year's most imaginative and uniquely exciting pieces of cinema.

Village Voice by J. Hoberman

It's a measure of Cuarón's directorial chops that Children of Men functions equally well as fantasy and thriller. Like Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" and the Wachowski Brothers' "V for Vendetta" (and more consistently than either), the movie attempts to fuse contemporary life with pulp mythology.

The Hollywood Reporter by Ray Bennett

Owen carries the film more in the tradition of a Jimmy Stewart or Henry Fonda than a Clint Eastwood or Harrison Ford. He has to wear flip-flops for part of the time without losing his dignity, and he never reaches for a weapon or guns anyone down. Cuaron and Owen may have created the first believable 21st-century movie hero.

Variety by Derek Elley

Picture more than delivers on the action front -- not in bang-for-your-buck spectacle but in the kind of gritty, doculike sequences that haul viewers out of their seats and alongside the main protags.

USA Today by Claudia Puig

An exhilarating sci-fi action thriller with a powerful social and political message.

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

Although imperfect, it's engaging, thought-provoking stuff.

Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum

The film gradually devolves into action-adventure, then the equivalent of a war movie. But the filmmaking is pungent throughout, and the first half hour is so jaw-dropping in its fleshed-out extrapolation that Cuaron earns the right to coast a bit.

Newsweek by David Ansen

Children of Men leaves too many questions unanswered, yet it has a stunning visceral impact. You can forgive a lot in the face of filmmaking this dazzling.