Equilibrium

Rating:
Summary: Rivals the Matrix! Buy now !
Review: This movie I saw the trailer too very early in the morning, and was like holy [molly] I need to see that movie now. I had to wait quite some time before it arrived to theatres. When I did, first thoughts were as good as the Matrix. I know thats alot of words to be sayen but trust me, my number 1 saying is if it's not REALLY good dont buy it, unless its for free =) Anyways Christian Bale who this was the first movie I saw him in might I add, did fantastic at his part. The music I enjoyed so much as well. I was very sad to hear that it didnt or barly made a million in theatres. I think it shoulda done 30-70 opening if it was better shown to people, I dont think I saw a commercial to it. Buy it now through the site before you cant find it later! -Luke Thuemmel-

Rating:
Summary: Equilbrium = Matrix Rev 2
Review: Professional movie critics hate this movie. In other words, regular folk would probably enjoy it. I certainly did. Yes, the plot isn't exactly Pulitzer candidate, but it's good enough glue together the excellent action sequences. Imagine the action sequences of The Matrix done better. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Prosaicum
Review: Falls apart early on when Preston says "I beg your pardon?" An expression designed to take into account the feelings of others.
A Big Brother police state that doesn't eavesdrop on interrogations nor has a surveillance camera behind the bathroom mirror instead of pipes? Inspite of increasingly hopeless odds, the film manages to keep you on side in the entertainment stakes until it finally all falls apart in the last quarter with a cut price Matrix rip-off. Strictly for the young, dumb and full of...er, rum.

Rating:
Summary: It will suck IQ points from you.
Review: I have a fairly high tolerance for heavy handed philosophizing in sci-fi, but the plot of this movie is not only incredibly pretentious, dumb, sophomiric, but also just offensive with its not so subtle attacks (the big evil in this movie is the drug 'Prozium') on anti-depressant medications. If that wasn't bad enough, Bale can't act and the gun scenes are truly absurd. I don't know how people could have found the action scenes impressive--blips of gunfire around a completely black scene (you see, close study of geometry tells the protagonist how to shoot people in the dark!?!)

Perhaps teen boys might like it--it has some positive reviews here, but honestly I found it the dumbest movie I've seen since I rented Battlefield Earth. I felt embarrassed for Emily Watson.

Rating:
Summary: What reloaded should have been
Review: I loved the original Matrix and violently hated Reloaded because of how good the original was. The load of philosophical mumbo jumbo in Reloaded made we want to run for the exits. Any movie where it has to spend long sections explaining itself...well it has issues. Talk about taking itself too seriously. For fans, read the Philosophy of the Matrix, let's you appreciate all the subtle nuances of the original.

So I had an extreme "Matrix" void, with all the expectations I had waiting for the $300M sequel, that never got satisfied...until Equilibrium. I agree wholeheartedly with a lot of the reviews that I've read so far on this thread, so I'll try to add to it.

This movie was emotionally powerful. I had wanted to see more movies with Emily Watson after I saw her performance in Punch Drunk Love. Equilibrium is an excellent love story. In fact, the director said in the DVD that Equilibrium actually tested better with women than men.

For those who haven't seen the movie I might ruin some of the best parts with what I'm about to say, so stop here.

I can't remember the last time I saw a movie where the protagonist doesn't successfully rescue the damsel in distress. When Christian Bale failed to rescue Emily Watson from termination, I was devasted. Greek tragedies are so rarely a Hollywood friendly script. I also can't remember the last time I emotionally flipped my view of a character from the son of Christian Bale who most likely reported his mother as a sense offender to his later action to actually save his father from being found out as a sense offender. Wow, I was also floored.

Like many, I had issues with some of the low budget aspects of the film but after you get engrossed (and you will be) in the plot you forget the superficial aspects, like enjoying an episode of Dr Who. Lastly, the fact that no one knows about the film and it has been a real find has really enhanced it's appeal to me. Blade Runner was never mainstream when it first came out and it was a financial flop. It existed as a fringe cult film for the longest time. I was one of the people who lined up to see all the director's cuts of it when it was first re-released to a limited audience in San Francisco.

This was a wonderful film and is definitely one of my favorites. I so rarely see movies more than once and most movies I wish I didn't see the first time. However, I continued to review Equilibrium every day 2-3 times until I had to return it...I guess I should buy it.

Rating:
Summary: a differnt time and differnt place
Review: The enjoyment of a base story about a man finding his own truth by other forcing him into areas that are unknown to him. A child that saw the truth and waited.
As a action base movie I like it and giving a basic understanding of a form of combat as the matrix.
Its a good movie over all
just enjoy the story

Rating:
Summary: Good Ideas But It Ain't the Matrix
Review: "Equilibrium" begins with an interesting premise: a world that has found peace by eliminating emotions, using behavioral drugs to keep them at bay. Order is reinforced by Clerics who dispense justice and fight the Father's enemies with martial arts and firearms. It's an interesting concept that would have made this movie somewhat like our present. However, while the production design is outstanding and the performances uniformly good, this movie is like a house of cards ready to collapse. And it does collapse, halfway through, when Christian Bale's character, Preston, tries to protect a puppy from slaughter. Is this the best the writers could come up with to describe Preston's realisation of the error of the order he defends? They should have started with Preston exploring why his partner and mentor, played by Sean Bean, went astray. They also could have gone further exploring the reasons for Preston's fascination with the woman, played by Emily Watson. Is it because he feels guilty for not saving his wife from an execution order for 'sense crime'? And what about Preston and his son? I noted that Preston was fearful of his son right from the beginning of the movie. How about some father/son relationship exploration?

Lots of story options that would have made this movie better. But, they went for a Matrix look-alike. What a waste.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent movie, no doubts......
Review: The review you see above, the amazon review I must say is a load of crap. I just saw the movie today, and I went in to watch this movie with pretty low expectations, expecting a cheap thrill is over the top guns fights and a story a six year old could have written in 5 minutes. However, I was pleasantly surprised after the first fight scene to see that there was indeed a story, and contrary to what I thought, it was surprisingly deep and very well done.

The review above, the amazon review caught my attention by stateing that the fight scene was stupid for the fight was spurred by a puppy. And if I had not seen the movie, I would have probably agreed that fighting over a puppy is pretty stupid story wise, however, if you watch the scene, it is actually quite moving, hearing the dogs getting killed and than introducing a view of a innocent puppy going up to a cold blooded killer and stirring something up inside of the clerick.

I could go on longer, however, I will not, I will wrap up this review by saying that this is very high quality movie magic. Action scenes to droll over, a story that'll make you think be grateful for emotions, and an ending that'll make you really smile from ear to ear. If you want to spend your money well, you'll be wise to spend it on a movie of this high caliber.

Rating:
Summary: Good-bye NEO!
Review: This is THE movie for all the NEO/BLADE fans!! I loved it. At first I thought, "man, this movie is really slow" and then, BOOM! You are caught up in the story line and all thoughts of time and space disappear as you sucked into the movie. Unlike most fight movies where every character (to include bartenders) can last 2 minutes in the ring with Mike Tyson; in this movie, if you fatally wounded, you are down. And in the end, ....
well you know the rest.

Rating:
Summary: Another Great Performance By Bale
Review: While this movie got hardly any support or promotion (only reason I heard of it was through a review at Entertainment Weekly when it came out on DVD) I was pleasantly surprised and pleased that I picked this up to rent. I honestly don't know why it didn't get promoted more and why it didn't at least have any kind of word of mouth out on the street. Christian Bale turns in another outstanding performance like he did in American Psycho. Whether you liked American Psycho or not, you have to admit his performance was top notch in that movie. Personally I liked it and I liked this movie. I think Bale has the "stonefaced/unemotional" act down to a science, but showed off that he has greater range than just that in his arsenal. The supporting cast was good in this movie and the action when shown was fast, furious, and very exciting. Overall I would recommend this movie to anyone looking for a very solid entertaining film with a good message. The action/drama/acting is all good and is definitely worth viewing!