Rating: 
Summary: Derivative
Review: Take equal helpings of Fahrenheit 451 and 1984. Throw in a cute babe. Make sure you have great looking costumes and production/set design. Add heavy-handed dialogue. Have the main character do a non-credible about face from emotionless slaughterer of dozens of human beings to being moved by a single puppy. (Gee, how in the heck did THAT happen?)It just doesn't work, folks. Why three stars? Cause the production/set design IS really good. Cause most of the actors ARE very good. The cute babe, for example, is Emily Watson and she IS an excellent actress. Sean Bean, though here only briefly, IS a good actor. In the lead role, Christian Bale DOES do a good job. The look of the film is top notch. The gun battles are not ultra-cool but just kind of...there. It's just a whole lotta guys shooting a whole lotta bullets out of a whole lotta guns with a whole lotta people dying as a result. Yeah, so? The original Matrix rocked because the concept was so breathtaking--ESPECIALLY the way it was developed. The concept here is NOTHING like the Matrix at all. It is a straightforward tried and true 1950s (even 1940s)-style science fiction idea: emotion will harm you so let's get rid of it and have unfeeling robotoids populate the world, numbed by the injection of a government-dispensed drug. This is mildly entertaining (the real reason for the three stars) but is not a great contemporary science fiction film. The Matrix (the original) is far superior. So is Dark City. This one is...just OK.
Rating: 
Summary: A Matrix it is not....
Review: When this movie was released it was bashed by critics as a "Matrix rip-off." After watching the film, you will find that it is nothing like the Matrix. The stories are not similar in the least bit, and the action scenes are quite different. The action in Equilibrium uses no bullet-time, hardly any slow-motion, and is edited using fast cuts. The introduction of the "Gun Kata"(martial arts using guns as extensions of the body) make the scenes fresh and break from the stale "Matrix" formula that has been ripped off countless times in other films. The plot in Equilibrium is simple, and deals with the concept of humanity. After WWIII, the nations agree that human emotion is what causes war, so all emotions and things that may incite them are deemed illegal. A drug called Prozium is used to suppress emotions, and a division called the "Teragrammaton" is created as a policing force, dispatching its "clerics" to eliminate all "offenders" who refuse the Prozium. Christian Bale plays Preston, a cleric who becomes conflicted between his duty and his humanity. The movie grabs pieces from many dystopian classics such as 1984 and Farenheight 451 and pieces them together to form a truly original work. Kurt Wimmer pulled off a miracle, considering he only had a 20 million dollar budget to work with. 20 million is probably how much Keanu's hairdresser got paid for the ridiculously over-budgeted Matrix Reloaded. This movie has far more substance and is a better film than Reloaded...and I was shocked to see Neo's outfit for the sequel. It looks EXACTLY like the Grammaton Cleric suit from Equilibrium. Too bad Preston would beat Neo to a pulp, even if he IS "the one."
Rating: 
Summary: LOVE IT!!!
Review: In the future (this time), WWIII happened and humanity has lost it's way (as usual). After the aftermath, the government decided to become fascists. NOW, the human race is controlled by a drug that makes people completely emotionless to prevent war and all that. An elite team lead by some guy (CHRISTIAN BALE) eliminates sex offenders (people who feel), all forms of art work, puppy dogs (I cried over that) and anything that will make a human emotional cuz feeling is illegal! But the dude forgot to take his dosage one day and starts feeling and sees the world in a whole different way! So now he finds himself working with sex offenders to battle the fascist emotionless government! This is probably the first movie to ever come up with the concept GUN KATA. I loved that! This is an original film without a doubt! A very good story, spectacular acting, awsome action, and original! I predict in the futrue that other people will rip-off the GUN KATA concept and use it for their own movies! I'll bet my life on it! My only complaint is the film should of focused more on the action rather than making it a sci-fi thriller but that doesn't take away anything from this movie! Still highly recommended movie!
Rating:
Summary: A really cool, if unknown, movie
Review: I did not know what to expect when I rented this movie; I had never heard of it, and the actors names did not seem to ring many bells. As I watched it, though, I really loved it. The shootouts are absolutely spectacular, and the ending action sequence is so original and well- done it is arguably the best that I have ever seen (although the face falling off thing was pretty fake). It is pretty much a cross between "1984" and "The Matrix." The acting is pretty good too, and Christian Bale's performance was superb. A great, ORIGINAL movie for all to see.
Rating:
Summary: Few under-rated movies, or major movies compare
Review: When I first heard of this movie I thought it sounded cool, nothing special. I rented the movie and then immediately had to buy it. Stand out performances by Christian Bale, Sean Bean and Taye Diggs, not to mention stand out fight sequences and a plot that ANYONE could go along with. It really is a movie that has to deal with the base nature of human beaings: our emotions. The story is captivating and the emotional content is almost over-whelming. I highly recomend just buying this movie because it has a lot of value when it comes to watching over and over again.
Rating:
Summary: better than the matrix
Review: equilibruim for me is probably whay more better than the matrix
why for these 3 reasons
1)the matrix often has a very complicated plot and its really hard to understand its moral.
2)the matrix relodeds fighting scenes are way too long and and extremely fake looking.
3)the matrix for me looks more like a video game than a movie.
now here we have something way better "EQUILIBRIUM" this movie uses a way better plot and better story line than the matrix.
the movie starts very weak explainig that sometime in the early 21st century a third world war will brake out, so to stop chaos from destroying the planet they event a new type of drug called prozium which trigers out the imotions of hate and envy.
not only that they create a new type of squad called the grammaton cleric which its task is to seek out and destroy people who refuse to take the drug.
* * *
so one of the high ranking clerics stops taking the prozium by mistake and he starts felling how beatifull it is to feel, and he also belives that all they prey is all lies that everything they were told actually does not excist that there's something evil around that new order of the city of libria
EQUILIBRIUM mixes high adrenaline action with great dramatic plot.and outstanding vissual effects and magnificent stunts
Rating: 
Summary: Good idea ruined, full stop
Review: When I rented EQUILIBRIUM today, I was drawn in by the story and the trailers featuring the fight scenes. The story begins when World War 3 occurs in the form of stock footage. The dictators of the time blame the arts for humanity's ability to wage war against each other(clock the images of Saddam - are the anti-Iraq war brigade involved here?!) and for influencing human emotions; so a new drug, Prozium(!?) is invented which people take by law to repress emotion and form a collective like the Borg in STAR TREK. Christian Bale(REIGN OF FIRE) plays cleric John Preston, an enforcer of the repressed emotion policies who suddely and very predictably becomes disillusioned and joins the other side, a resisitance movement. His superiors take note and send their own men after him, and the slow pacing of the first half degenerates into MATRIX rip off fight scenes, which while well staged, were too short to add any true excitement. Just what was this movie trying to be - art house pretentious rubbish or a cut-price MATRIX? Jan De Bont produced this, too, in my opinion, his career hit a low with SPEED 2 and has been going downhill ever since, with the obvious exception of MINORITY REPORT, which is far far superior. If you want to see a better version of this story, try the original inspiration, FAHRENHEIT 451, which is a true sci-fi classic. EQUILIBRIUM is the perfect waste of one hour and forty three minutes of anybody's life. And what the hell was the great Sean Bean thinking appearing in it?
Rating:
Summary: Beware of Critics!!!
Review: When?!? Oh WHEN!?! WHEN will I stop listening to movie critics "advice"? Having looked at reviews of the movie at a certain "overripe" (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) tomato's website, I listened to the critics advice about what a supposed horror this movie was and missed the opportunity to see it on the big screen!
Comment ran from, "overly assuming" to "completely lacking in style and substance" to "drivel". I apparently like "drivel" because this movie amazed me. The depth in Christian Bale's performance as he sampled sensing and feeling like a fine wine turning into a massive LSD hit...Taye Diggs' seething hatred and self-love...Emily Watson's desperation and resolve...It was excellent.
Kurt Wimmer deserves a standing ovation for this film. It was imaginitive and inventive, drawing just enough from other classic cinema, then infusing it with moody scenery and ingenuitive gunplay. Even on this very site, the reviewer scoffs at the "gun katas" even though that seems to me like a very intelligent, natural evolution of martial arts weapon mastery.
Bottom line, don't believe everything you read. And in the words of Levar Burton, "Don't take my word for it...go out and rent it for yourself"...or something like that...
Rating:
Summary: This is a MUST SEE
Review: This film grabbed my attention one boring night as I scrolled through pay per view on demand. And the night was no longer boring!
From the very beginning the superb acting by Bale grabbed me and didn't let go. His portrayal of John Preston was so well done I could feel what Preston was going through. The sceen with the puppy made me weep. I am now a die hard Bale fan.
Ignore the Matrix with all it's polticio b.s. and go for the raw meat that is human emotion - which is what this film is all about. The most dangerous thing we humans do is feel but it is also the most glorious.
After watching this film (I watched it 3 times in the 24hrs. I had it available) I was first completely FLOORED, then saddened by the realization of what we humans do to each other, and finally elated by the realization of what we humans can do for eachother.
Please do not miss this film.
Rating:
Summary: Equilibrium is a must see
Review: Equilibrium is basically a modern mix pulling from the motif of Fahrenheit 451 and the action of The Matrix. I enjoyed this film because it hits on the philosophical argument of what causes man to commit acts of violence against fellow man. Equilibrium is basically a satyr of where humanity would have to go in order for man to stop this primal urge that spawns violence, and how we would have to live in a society that strips away our humanity. Emotion would become a crime because it is the primary factor that leads to violent crime. The protagonist battles with himself through out the movie to determine if the price of emotion and feelings out way the consequences that he realizes they can lead to. I also enjoy the fact that the action is good but is there to support the plot development, rather then the other way around.
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