Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: On the surface it looks a little like the Matrix, but it is a completely different film. For one thing, the fight choreography is top notch and more realistic than the ones in the Matrix. In other words, little or no flying in the air and more reliance on technique rather than computer enhanced effects. The "Gun Kata" concept is unrealistic but is logical and a refreshing idea. The samurai sword fight scene as well as the amazing pistol fight are pleasant surprises. Unlike the Matrix which has an apocalyptic theme, Equilibrium is more related to 1984 and Farenheight 451.
Rating: 
Summary: Can you say "Rip-Off!"???
Review: I just finished watching this movie-and in order to try to do the review justice-I actually sat through the whole thing-(just like when I tolerated sitting through 'Moulin Rouge'). -And Can you say....umm "RIP-OFF"!!?? From the Matrix, Resident Evil, and the book "Brave New World"? Save yourself the money and time from watching this silly knock-off from the aforementioned movies/books-and go see/read the real things. Believe-me you are not missing anything.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Cool Ride!
Review: This movie -- set in the future -- starts off by recapping recent history. The planet has just undergone its Third World War, and it resolves to avoid a Fourth. This is accomplished by abolishing all human emotions - and thus all individuality - to eliminate the passions which lead to unavoidable conflict. The world is angular and masculine and devoid of most color - where even the women dress like men. The buildings look like Nazi temples. And the rules are enforced by the Grammaton Clerics, who wear only tunics of black. So if the movie looks a little like the Matrix. And if Christen Bale (as John Preston), the lead cleric, bears an uncanny resemblance to Keanu Reeves (which he does), then the similarity, I'm sure -- is purely intentional!The population takes a drug to entirely suppress their emotions. Adults - and children - are free to report anyone for extermination who shows any amount of feeling. Preston's partner succumbs to emotion early and Preston does the honors. The tables are soon turned, however, when Preston himself foregoes his daily dose, and he becomes overwhelmed by the beauty of the world that he now "senses" once the effects of the drugs begin to diminish. He discovers the emotional richness of the world's past; the books, the paintings, the passages of music - and a woman, Emily Watson, who captures his heart -- to make his anguish complete. The story is taut and well told. And it builds to a climactic finish.. Preston joins the underground to help overthrow the world that the clerics are assigned to enforce. Along the way, we are treated to some of the most beautifully choreographed hand-to-hand pistol combat I've ever seen. The clerics also have this cool way of jumping into a group of six men - arranged around them like pockets in a billiard table - and then taking each one of the out, without ever changing their stance, by shooting and wrapping their arms around their heads as if they were doing yoga. It isn't until the end that we finally see the special up-their-sleeve speed loaders or the bulbous high capacity magazines that the cleric use with their automatic pistols -- that allows them to lay down a more blistering rate of fire than the multiple machine guns arrayed against them. Even Preston's young son, a miniature Nazi himself, provides one of the nicest twists towards the story's conclusion as Preston proceeds towards his irrevocable goal - to set in motion events that will eventually destroy the current world order and restore the sanctity of human existence. The movie starts off like a Matrix wannabe, but finishes by delivering some of the most exciting exhibitions of action, artistry - and emotion - I've ever seen displayed together in a pseudo sci-fi flick! This is a film I highly recommend. Don't miss it!
Rating: 
Summary: Forget the Matrix? Well.... not hardly... but a good film!
Review: The marketing surrounding this critically hailed and audience neglected film, says "Forget the Matrix". Not hardly. I can't really understand all the connections, honestly... the stories are apples and oranges, the action is apples and oranges... the costumes... well... okay... the Clerics look like they're jacked right in to battle Agent Smith. But they don't borrow from any of the action style of the Matrix whatsoever. Instead, they adopt a new-fangled gun battling called "Gun-Kata", which essentially allows for the master of Gun-Kata to walk into a room full of armed enemies, instantly calculate positions and trajectories that will allow them to move and fire precisely enough to hit the enemies in kill zones and have their own body in a position to avoid the line of fire from any of the enemies. Sounds complicated, but it's beautiful to watch on screen. This movie looks like 1984, Minority Report, and the Matrix all in one. In the future, there is no war, because there is no emotion... it's outlawed and controlled by a drug which everyone must take at regular intervals. Anything which spurs emotion is outlawed as well: art, music, literature... even their windows are fogged over so that they cannot see the sun rise or set, for fear it might inspire emotion. There are plenty of plot-holes in this film... but they're easy enough to overlook and just have fun. For example, Taye Digg's character is Cleric Christian Bale's new partner. From the beginning, Digg's becomes suspicious of his partner and even shows some clear ambition that he wants to be the top Cleric like Bale. Ambition isn't so much an emotion, but it can lead to violence too... they don't account for that in the film at all. What about greed? They don't really explain if the drug counters these things. Digg's ambition though, could clearly be read as motivator towards something bad happening... not to mention he smiles way too much for someone who isn't supposed to "feel"... Anyway, that being said... the movie is fun. The action is limited to the beginning and towards the very end, while the middle is devoted to watching this Cleric unravel as he misses a dose of the drug and begins to struggle with newfound emotion. There are a couple of neat twists, but overall, you will enjoy this morality tale unfolding while at the same time watching bullets fly like mad. It's a shame it was overlooked in theaters. Here's hoping it gets a new life as a cult classic.
Rating:
Summary: I'm shocked
Review: To tell you the truth, I thought this movie was going to suck. I heard so many people say "better than the Matrix," that I was thinking "Existenz" all over again. Besides, though there have been unfortunate moments in the Matrix (i.e. orgy scene in second flick) it's a solid movie with overall great acting and action, and one of the most original treatments of the subject matter in cinematic history. To my surprise, I actually enjoyed this movie! I fail to see where the Matrix comparison comes in, however. The action is different, no one flies or dodges bullets (in the traditional sense), and the explanation for supernatural ability is scientifically precise martial arts (with guns!). The subject matter is different; here people struggle with feelings, not machines. Despite the potential for cliched dialogue (i.e. Bobby Robot: "what's that wetness rolling down your cheek" Cindy Human: "It's called a tear"), they actually handled it with as much grace as possible. If you like sci-fi and action, check this out. It's not the Matrix, but it shouldn't even be compared to it! Watch it for what it is, a rare gem in its genre! It's well acted, well scripted, and extremely interesting.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of 2002
Review: It's shameful to think that this movie was in theaters for only a couple of weeks in 2002. The little fan fair it received (mostly due to the low budget) was not deserved. Anyone would have been lucky to have seen this 'film' in theaters. Yes. This was a FILM...not just another movie. It was emotional. I wanted to cry with his character when he heard classical music for the first time. I felt for his character as he felt an absolute need to protect that puppy after witnessing the previous events(don't want to give anything away). If I had his abilities, I would have fought for that dog myself.(You have to look at everything leading up to that scene.) This film also showed how you CAN have a superb fight scene performed without all the wires and CGI. There were things in the fight scenes of 'The Matrix Reloaded' that made me laugh. There was nothing about the fight scenes in 'Equilibrium' that made me laugh. And about the GunKata: I believe it was a very unique idea. A lot of movie makers don't have the guts to be that creative. I give the idea itself a B+. Where 'The Matrix Reloaded' tries to be a movie, 'Equilibrium' succeeds in becoming a film. This is an absolute must see.
Rating:
Summary: One Word: Incredible
Review: I really don't care about what "critics" say about this film because it is without the best film of 2002 in my opinion. Even though the basics of it are "borrowed" from other books and movies this is, in it's own right, a ORIGINAL piece. People keep comparing it the Matrix when in fact there was no wire work done in this movie,it also has an original fighting style never done on screen, The Gun-kata, which is amazing.Christian Bale gives a terrific performance as the "Cleric" Agent John Preston. You can really see the change as he transforms from an unfeeling machine to a tortured soul brought on my all his newfound emotions. 5 stars!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Decent movie, people have their references wrong.
Review: I write this simply out of annoyance more than anything.
I can understand that people don't like this movie, it was not the most creative. I personally liked it mainly because it was a modern twist on one of my favorite stories, no not the matrix as most the people here claim but 1984.
Suppression of original ideas "Big Brother"
Seriously. Don't say that a movie is ripping off the matrix when it ties much more closely to perhaps one of the most influential books in the last century. Back to the movie, nice touch of a utopian society as opposed to a distopia, that brings hints of Brave New World to the story.
The story line was simple, but solid and without, I feel, loose ends.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Good Direct-To-Video
Review: A very good SCIFI movie with a good plot and great actors. I liked it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good acting, ridiculous gun fights, horrible screen play
Review: To be honest, on the whole it's not that horrible a movie. I enjoyed watching it, and the actors were great. The only problem I had was the extremely loopy screen writing. You call that a plot? (Well, the gun fights WERE ridiculous, but I got a good laugh out of it so that was great.) The film jumps from one place to another. It doesn't take time to build its character and as such it'll leave you gaping and shouting, "What? How did THAT happen?" When I saw it in the movies, people laughed in unison at the supposedly 'serious' scenes. There's no logic to the film. Farenheit 451 and The Giver work because the authors spent some heavy time thinking up the why's and how's of their futuristic monotone societies. Clearly the screen writer for Equilibrium didn't; he just ripped off from the said great works and threw in a few touches of Matrix. Even though the actors act so well, you can see that they're just acting because their dialogue and actions simply don't ring true. The fight to protect the doggie was ridiculous (why a DOG, of all things? He killed his own partner and he's risking his life for a DOG? How did that happen?) The film turns insane in the later half; what, you mean THAT was the truth about Preston's son? I found that turn exceptionally hard to believe, and so did everyone else in the theater. (A foreigner next to me kept shouting, "Jesus Christ! That's stupid!") Oh, and THE ENDING... Don't get me started about the ending. How did the writer stumble upon the stupidest possible way to bring it to an end? I simply can't understand. There are so many great aspects of the movie; great set, great acting, great idea,great design... Why, WHY didn't they get someone else to write it?! It's not such a bad choice. I mean, relax, don't be so angry that you spent a lot of bucks on the DVD, and I'm sure you'll be happy about the way it made you laugh! Especially with all the 'gun fights'... LoL It's truly a gift to be able to make people laught at a bloody fight just because it's so plain impossible. I mean, Matrix 2, with its multi-Smith battle caused just a few chuckles and smothered laughter. Equilibrium? We couldn't hear the lines because people were laughing and choking all over. If you don't have too much disposable money, though, I suggest you rent the movie, not buy it. It might piss you off quite a bit.
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