Equilibrium

Rating:
Summary: You Should Not Miss These Sensational Action Scenes
Review: Sci-fi flick with stunning visuals, "Equilibrium" deserves much more attention not only from fans of genre, but also from general audiences. Sure, its flaws are too visible, borrowing Orwellian ideas from other films like, say, "Brazil," but it is not that ideas themselves but the way they are put into practice that really counts, and on that score "Equiliburium" is a winner. (And critics, please let me know, why do you all praise Steven's "Minority Report" which actually borrows ideas from other films of this genre? So, why not give this one a due respect?)

Well, I admit the opening chapter of "Equilibrium" is a bit weak, introducing us to the dystopia world after the WW3, but soon you will forget that. The totalitarian government established after the war decided to eliminate anything that might possibly make humans emotional, forcing the people to inject a certain doze of [chemical substance] to be unemotional every day. Moreover, it decrees there should be no more music (not only hip-hops, but classic music), no more motion pitures, and no more decorated interiors. Those who love them hide underground, becoming rebels while the authroity set up a super-cop troop called "Grammaton Clerics."

Christian Bale ("American Psyco") is John Preston the best of the Clerics, and dedicates himself to the job until he arrests a woman Mary O'Brien who possessd illegal stuffs. But her strong creed and perhaps beauty make their way into the sleeping heart of Preston, who has been long fighting for his cause.

The film's philosophical messages are in themselves not new at all, and director Kurt Wimmer might have kept his idea a little too long. I say so, because today, in the 21st century, it is not this Orwellian society that we are afraid of most. The story has enough twists to surprise us, but maybe one too many, I think, and the wrap-up part of the film feels a bit hurriedly done.

However, those are noting before the film's sensational action scenes, which can make up for any flawed part of the film. The "Gun-Kata" fighting deserves special mention, using [weapons] like Japanese swords, and its hyper-kinetic movement is very violent and very beautiful at the same time. Incredible it might sound, but Christian Bale shows excellent action star quality here, displaying the beauty of "Kata"s -- and "kata" means in Japanese "style." Yes, there are lots of styles in "Equilibrium."

Other plsyers are also effectively cast, and most unexpected is Emily Watson, who quite naturally becomes the Joan D'Arc-like character. Taye Diggs is good as Preston's partner, and though short time, Sean Bean, cast against type, is also perfect as Partridge who plays a key role in the story.

I was quite surprised and satisfied, and even thrilled to see this neglected film, which should have been more pushed. Again I say, its actions are sensational. Not that this is "Matrix"; rather, it is more unique and has its own "kata" = style, which means a lot these days.

Rating:
Summary: So Derivative It's Comical
Review: If you've never read any of the books that this film borrows from (actually, steals blatantly from is more fitting) then you might enjoy this. If you've ever read any of these great books (1984, Anthem, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, etc.) then you'll likely be as horribly disappointed as I was.

Another dystopia sci-fi movie? Yes, and there's nothing wrong with that. However the literary history here is so deep that you need to do a great job to do this genre justice or risk becoming a punchline.

E is rooted in Orwell's 1984 where the Party's control was total infiltrating the minds of all. Like 1984 propaganda never stops with Father's words repeated over speakers and video screens ad infinitum. Children will turn their "sense offending" parents in to authorities. People are executed based on thought crimes. Hero sees the light, learns to love the emotions that define humanity, ventures into 'nether' and finds refuge among art and emotion-inspiring relics. Oh, the police burn these things just like in Fahrenheit 451. He finds a souvenir of the Eiffel Tower and has a breakdown... isn't this exact scene in Orwell?

In E the drug Prozium is used to control by suppressing emotions. So now we've jumped to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World where Soma performed the same function. Sex is illegal in E so where do kids come from - maybe we should assume a similar process to Huxley where children are bred and the concept of parents is nullified leaving the state as father. Outlawing sex is a stretch. In Huxley sex was ok but through decades of breeding and propaganda caring and love are dead leaving everyone free to pursue shallow relations.

Bale's character seeks out the underground - duh. See Logan's Run, 1984, The Matrix or any dystopia work. Under the pretense of seeking them out to destroy them he ends up joining the resistance - double duh.

Everyone wears Matrix attire so they look cool. The Gun-Kata action scenes are rip-offs of that too. I'll admit they look cool in their hysterically over-produced glory.

This movie falls so short of its influences that it is an embarrassment. More irksome is that the director and producer don't mention any of the source material in the commentary. E is only viewable as action sci-fi junk food.

Rating:
Summary: Gun-Kata
Review: In a world not to inthe distant future, a strict regime has eliminated war by suppressing emotions: books, art and music are strictly forbidden and feeling is a crime punishable by death. Cleric John Preston (Christian Bale) is a top-ranking government
agent *like a super cop,judge and excutoner* responsible for destroying those who resist these rules. When he misses a dose of Prozium, a mind-alterering drug that hinders emotion, Preston, who has been trained to enforce the strict laws of the new regime, suddenly becomes the only person capable of overthrowing it.

this movie is getting panned by critics but really qwhat dothey know.
this movie has the actoon of matrix .. yet the martial arts are more believeable. I swear after you see gun kata in action you will really thinkyou to cvan do all these movies. thesenone of that 20 feet inthe air or punchs that knock a person back 30 ft and all those other wire trips.

The whole idea of no emotions due tothe drug that everone has to take after the 3rd world war. does bother me because I'd see emotion as the drive behind everything.. going to work and the need for a promotion and the act of procreation.. and such.. but maybe i'm missing it.

Bale and Diggs do an awesome job.. , the movie having I think a 20 mil budget you could hardlt tell.
It's the type of film that has two messages.. THe one that the average action person gets and the one for the thinker.
Hmm now are you average or are you a THINKER??

Rating:
Summary: Heart & Action
Review: A very respectable blend of 1984, Metropolis and Fahrenheit 451.

This movie has combined what has always been missing in action films. Intense action, deep characters and a plot that actually makes us feel.

Why can't action movies have heart and why can't heart have action?

Christian Bale is outstanding. A charcter that must not reveal his emotions to all (except the audience). He does very little and he does it so well we're moved to tears.

Please see this movie.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best science fiction movies I've seen!!!!
Review: I heard about this movie from a friend and watched it. When I heard it was a low budget film, I didn't expect much. The only reason I saw it in the beginning was because Christian Bale and Taye Diggs were in it. When I saw the film, I was completely blown away. The plot wasn't original, but it was definitely intriguing and quite good. The actors' performances were astounding, especially Christian Bale's. I really liked the "gun kata". Really original and much better than the gun-action sequences in The Matrix. I think it's ridiculous that some people think it's a ripoff of the Matrix. The script was made before Matrix came out. And to the people that wonder why Christian Bale's character was hard to kill, pay attention to the little detail with the lie detector, where Preston shut off his emotions and became a cold blooded killer. It was a great film overall...the plot was good...the actors' performances were great...and the action was great. No need for the bullet-time effects in Equilibrium...the action stands out all on it's own.

Rating:
Summary: The first true rival of "The Matrix". . .
Review: "Equilibrium" truly gives "The Matrix" a run for its money. It may not be as revolutionary, and it was certainly made on very limited coffers (in film terms, that is, with a budget of about twenty million dollars), but this movie nonetheless has it all: heart, soul, brains, and more than its fair share of visceral action. It is this combination of the dramatic, the cerebral, and the intense that makes "Equilibrium" one of the best action films of its kind, and one of the very best films released in 2002 (though Dimension, for whatever reason, opted for a limited release, which may be why you've never heard of it up until now).

The always versatile and vastly talented Christian Bale plays John Preston, an emotionless enforcer (or Cleric) who arrests, and more often murders, those known as "Sense Offenders" - people who refuse to obey the laws of the futuristic regime, which has made illegal all forms of artistic expression, and even emotion itself. Emotion is regulated by daily drug use, and those who refuse to indulge are summarily executed. But when Preston kills his partner (played by Sean Bean, who so effortlessly portrayed Boromir in "The Lord of the Rings") for displaying unusual sentiment and misses his own required inducement of the emotion-quelling drug, he realizes that perhaps he is fighting for the wrong team.

"Equilibrium" feels like John Woo's take on "Fahrenheit 451" or "Brave New World," and it's absolutely astounding. Though at times "Equilibrium" may be guilty of mimicking "The Matrix," it sometimes outshines its forebear, and is every bit as compelling, its world every bit as believable (if not more so). Like "The Matrix," "Equilibrium" makes a powerful statement, and despite its splendidly choreographed action segments (which are revolutionary in their own right), it is a film with brains and brawn alike, and should not be missed. At last, despite all of its immitators, "The Matrix" has a worthy adversary in the genre.

Rating:
Summary: A Superb Exercise in Speculative Film Making
Review: I can understand the urge to compare "Equilibrium" and "The Matrix". Both films feature dark, foreboding cinematography. Both films are about rebellion against a warped reality. Both films feature a reluctant, messianic protagonist. And, finally, both films rely heavily on stylistic, hyper-kinetic combat scenes that can only be described as, well, reverent. That is where the similarity ends because while "Equilibrium" has a few moments of slow-motion it's action scenes are much more original than those of "The Matrix Trilogy". No Wires, just pure crazy choreography which makes the action feel all the more authentic. The environment is also a great deal more organic in contrast to the cryptic automaton of the Matrix.

"Equilibrium", in short, manages to be entirely its own movie. Where The Matrix relies on "bending" the rules of physics in an imaginary construct of a world, "Equilibrium" goes the other way and hypothesizes the "Gun-Kata", a martial arts ballet that allows it's practitioners to predict and anticipate close quarters gun fighting and hand to hand combat. Then, through a series of precise, dance like movements, a person can take on several combatants, using exacting, fluid actions to eliminate his attackers. Given a decidedly artistic presentation within the course of the film, these rapid-fire rhapsodies are exhilarating and oddly beautiful. They glamorize death as an abstract expression of powder bursts and shrieking projectiles. The film features some of the best choreographed shootouts I have ever seen, and ends up putting anything in The Matrix Trilogy to shame.

"Equilibrium" is a film that explores what it theorizes to be the root of all worldly chaos, human emotion. The movie takes place in the near future after a third world war that leaves Earth on the verge of total destruction. From the ashes arises a government that regulates everything and everyone through mind control. The drug Prozium is hailed as the elixir to the world's problems because it suppresses human emotion and thus eliminates the possibility war. All art, music, poetry and any emotion are considered contraband and must be destroyed upon discovery.

The primary clash is between individualism and collectivism -- the notion that each person is an end to him or herself and pursues his or her own happiness, and the theory that the individual exists only to further the interests of the state. In "Equilibrium", the side of "feelings" (the side that promotes painting, music, and literature) is the side of the sovereign individual.

The film clearly suggests that emotions -- the ability to "feel" -- are what make life worth living; yet they are also the source of violence and war. At some level, this is clearly true. The joy of art, the intensity of romantic love, the pleasures of a touch or the sight of a sunrise, the fascination of a great idea -- these are the things we live for. "Crimes of passion" such as murder, domestic violence, and assault generally involve uncontrolled emotions.

In "Equilibrium", murder and war among the civilian population have been wiped out. Of course, they have been replaced by state-sponsored murder and terror. Thus, the film points out the real purpose of deadening people's emotions is to perpetuate state oppression.

This nightmare is presided over by the Big Brother-like dictator Father, and enforced by a quasi-religious order of "Clericks," whose incredible combat skills are unleashed on "sense offenders" who have gone off the drugs that keep the populace docile.

John Preston (Christian Bale) is the perfect Grammaton Clerick (the government is known as the Tetragrammaton). He kills "sense offenders" without passion or guilt ... until he inadvertently fails to take his prescribed tranquilizer dose and events begin to catch up with him. Little by little, he finds himself drawn into "sense crime" and then into the resistance. I hesitate to reveal much more about the plot of "Equilibrium", jammed as it is with surprise and invention -- suffice to say, this is an intellectual rollercoaster ride, as cerebral as it is visceral; both a bleak glimpse into a possible future and a stirring tribute to the indomitable human spirit.

The creators of "Equilibrium" had to take some liberties with the very idea of emotion, of course. The drug really only eliminates the "highs" and "lows," leaving enough emotive strength for the characters to retain ambition and a visceral hatred of their enemies. Plot means conflict and human conflict is impossible without emotion.

The acting is excellent, and if you like Christian Bale as much as I do, he shines above all else. Bale is truly exceptional in bringing a real sense of emotional conflict to the character of Preston, and as the film moves on he gradually brings that emotion to the forefront. At the start of the film, and in it's many flashbacks, Preston is supposed to be this emotionless killer that doesn't realize he's actually feeling subtle emotions. Bale's performance keeps the perfect monotone voice of an emotionless character, but in his eyes shows the doubt, remorse and anger. Then as the films moves on he gradually starts changing his tone of voice, allowing the monotone to falter in key moments, until in the end he completely releases all of his emotions.

As you can tell, Equilibrium's plot draws from a rich variety of sources. There's a lot of Orwell's "1984" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World".

True, there are a few minor plot problems, but any movie that treats ideas and symbols seriously these days is a find, and one that pulls off a serious treatment of life's most fundamental questions in the context of a gripping story is a rare jewel.

"Equilibrium" is not science fiction so much as political speculation. It's that mainstay of movies, the cautionary tale, twisted into a decidedly dense and deceptive action thriller. While it may not always deliver in the thought department, we sure get some wonderful visual flourishes. And if a sci-fi film can stir your imagination, it's won most of the battle.

The creation of the enigmatic weapons battle dance, "Gun-Kata", makes the movie a see at least once exercise in speculative movie making.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and full of emotions...a total paradox
Review: I like the movie...is very good and has lots of good material to talk about.

Rating:
Summary: A suprisingly well rounded movie
Review: I rented this movie anticipating a cheesy action flick. I was beyond pleasantly suprised with what I saw. This is a well rounded movie. The drama in this movie is severly over looked in reviews of this movie. Christian Bale's performance is five stars, his facial expression during the furnace scene is priceless. The music matches perfect to every scene as it adds to the mood. It is a modern day version of farenheit 451. But better as it reaches out to a persons humanity more direct. It it entertaining and can very easily watch it again. The action scenes are well done and the movie does a good job making them seem realistic. Well written script with well timed twists. How this movie didn't become a blockbuster is beyond me, it is simply one of the best movies of the year. GREAT ACTION, GREAT WRITING, GREAT DIRECTING, and GREAT ACTING. A very entertaining movie that has been badly overlooked. I highly recommended it. You will fill good after watching it.

Rating:
Summary: HOW DO YOU FEEL?
Review: Kurt Wimmer's stark, violent cautionary tale is set after WWIII. Citizens are being controlled by a drug which stifles their emotions. The government feels that without emotions, there will be no wars, no murders; they think emotions are a handicap, and they use clerics to uphold the law. Anyone showing emotion is either killed on the spot or incinerated later. No trials, nothing. Of course, this means all things like literature, music, etc., are banned.
Christian Bale stars as the highest ranking "Cleric", who enforces the law dictated by Father (Sean Pertwee). Early in the film, Bale's partner (Sean Bean) shows evidence of having feelings, and when Bales finds him reading the poetry of Yeats, he is forced to kill him.
His new partner (an appropriately sniveling Taye Diggs) is excited to work with Bales, but at the same time he is more in mind. Angus McFayden plays the chief of council, whose agenda is also more than meets the eye.
Bales finally decides to stop taking the daily drug doseages and is rewarded with feelings----and a threat to his life and career.
The battle sequences are awesome in their fluidity and imagination. Bales and Emily Watson as doomed Mary O'Brien, are particularly good, and the movie is quite original in its take of Fahrenheit 451.
Gloomy yet impressive.