Half-Life2 (groan); Children of Men

The similarity between the second half of C.o.M. and the gameplay style of Half-life 2, not to mention the stylistic similarities and parallel themes, goes WAY beyond the realm of coincidence. It's like one was a tribute to the other - what I wanna know is, does anyone know/suspect which is which?

 

I didn't notice any similarity at all really, what part are you talking about specifically, forgotten what happens in HL2.

 

One was about breaking into an Alien built City and the other was about getting a mother and baby out of a paranoid xenophobic society I'll have what he's drinking

TBH V for Vendetta has more in common with HL2 than CoM IMO

 

I can see the similarities, and HL2 did come out before CoM. However, run-down dystopias of once great cities is not uncommon and it doesn't take much of an imagination to think of what one might look like. Unless you have specific cases of exact similarities, I'd have to say the were at most just noticed by the art director, and neither was copied or inspired by the other.

 

I did notice then when I was watching it. Yeah, the city from CoM paralells City17 perfectly.

 

So would it look like liverpool?

 

I could barely stand to watch Children of Men to the end, cripes what a boring ass movie that was.

 

Agreed on the simililarities. I felt all the way through CoM that it was the closest thing I'd ever watched to the game HL2.

Oh and I know that dystopia is common but I'm still doing my usual and saying it should be, and you mean, cacotopia. Dystopia is wraaaahng damnit!

 

I would have to disagree. I was rather impressed with it. Ingenious art direction, great story/presentation, and you gotta love those long-take scenes.

 

/off topic/
I wouldn't say that dystopia is necessarily wrong. From what I can tell, the difference between the two is a matter of perspective - dys ("bad" or "negative") and caco ("worst"). Wikipedia lists them as synonyms (cacotopia actually redirects to dystopia), and the Oxford English Dictionary contains no entry for cacotopia.

At any rate, perhaps the more appropriate term is anti-utopia - an intended utopia that has been destroyed or turned around by some major flaw.

Please, feel free to school me in etymology. I relish the opportunity to learn something new.

And I have to say that Children of Men was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time.

-monkey

 

Of course, if you really want to split hairs, utopia isn't the correct term either - you want eutopia, which implies perfection, not just utopia, which is merely a place that does not exist. In fact, an Orwellian dystopia is a utopia...

But honestly, there comes a point where even I say "enough, enough", and the utopia/eutopia debate is waaaay past that point.

 

I just like to call dys/cacotopia's as a sh*tty situation, and eu/utopias as fat free frozen yogurt.

 

Well even Utopia is technically wrong. Utopia is a pun on Eutopia, Eu- meaning good, so Eutopia meaning good-place. Utopia means no-place, which is why it's a bit of a pun, because the perfect world will never exist (yup, greeks had a complex sense of humour).

But dys-topia really implies, from the ancient greek speakers I've talked with about it, ill-place. It's just not quite right. Cacotopia is more accurate to mean a sort of hellish society that we all use the word dystopia for.

Given that even utopia is very wrong I suppose I should just let it slide, but it was humour that got utopia being used and it was igorance that got dystopia being used, so, I shall fight it

edit: Shouldn't post while hungover, hadn't read previous posts (good for spec!) - meh....

 

To get back to the topic at hand, anyway, I was bored stiff by Children of Men (Blade Runner for this generation? Oh, puh-leeze...), and I never got past Route Canal on HL2. So, I suppose that there is some similarity there.

 

Sir Thomas More coined the word utopia in 1516, not the Greeks. It was the proper name of the island in his book of the same name. Though, as you say it was a pun from the Greek ou-topos(no place) and eu-topos (good place).

So while utopia in the modern context might not be totally, 100% correct, its meaning is extended to idealistic societies, such as the one found in More's book.

I guess this is just one of the many examples of the wonderfully complex nature of language.

-monkey

 

Indeed? How interesting. Didn't realise there were so many people on here with etymological knowledge.

 

I spend most of my time scouring Wikipedia for bits of ultimately useless information.