Equilibrium

[Ingemar]

or, "Christian Bale minus the Batsuit, dragons, or a degenerative case of insomnia".

Seriously, Equilibrium is one of those movies that silently comes in theatres and silently out, but kicks an overwhelming amount of [posterior] in between.

It's the story of a totalitarian utopia (a paradox?) where, in order to prevent wars, destruction and crime, all human emotion is banned. An elite caste of law enforcers called the "Grammaton Cleric" are in charge of seeking and eliminating "sense crime" offenders and any objects that may cause human beings to feel. This is where Christian Bale (and to a lesser extent, Sean Bean and Taye Diggs) come in.

I don't want to say much more, since I might give spoilers. Besides the backstory, there are some absolutely totallyfreakinawesomeifying (I had to make up a word just to describe it) gun fights and one sword fight that would make Quentin Tarantino weep and flagellate himself. Rent this movie. Now. Don't listen to the fools who call this movie a "Matrix rip off." Unlike Keanu Reeves, Bale is actually a halfway decent actor (though, and this is not entirely his fault, I didn't think his character developed enough).

And for you literature types, this movie is reminiscent of (I am told--I unfortunately never read the following books) Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, and 1984. Among others.

[Stephen]

Saw it, loved it. Thought it was a pretty original piece of work.

[Raiden no Kishi]

I loved Equilibrium. The world, the fight scenes, the story, everything.

It was sad when they shotgunned all the dogs, though. I'm glad they didn't actually show it (hearing it was enough for me).

.rai//

[That Dude]

I loved it...Have you heard of the new movie that the Equilibrium's director is coming out with? It's a vampire story with the gun-kana in it and from what I've heard it sounds totally stinking awesome.

[bigsleepj]

I liked Equilibrium a lot, but the story had far too many paralels and themes from George Orwell's "1984" than what's good for it. It does have some interesting twists on the ideas but still too many.

[rii namuras]

(I watched it from CleanFilms (Considering I don't watch rated R movies) at the Mocks, and it is indeed awesome. I agree, I didn't like the part with the dogs. All the girls in the room ('twas a party) went "T_T".)

[Cap'n Nick]

I could have done without the anti-Christian symbolism. The country's fascist ruler is called "Father" and the government "The Tetragrammaton," which is also the four-letter name for God (YHWH) used in the Hebrew scriptures. The beginning of the movie did identify the holy scriptures as prohibited by this regime, but I'm sure more than a few people would be happy to latch on to this subtext of religion suppressing the freedom to live true to one's self.

Wet blanketting aside, I really did enjoy this movie. Good action with a solid story that actually has a bit of a point. That's worth a gold star in my book.

[Michael]

I need to see this movie soon. I've heard so much about it.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Great movie! Only saw it a couple months ago. The gun-kata scenes are great and the story and atmosphere were great also! (yes, they borrowed from other dystopian society novels/films but who cares). It was especially good being done on the small budget it had (less than 20 million).

[uc pseudonym]

Interesting. I had thought I might pass up a general journey to the theater, but perhaps this movie would be worth it. Or is it already gone?

[Sync]

theatrical release was in 2002, DVD was April 2004.

[Maledicte]

I wanted to see it so bad...but now I can't seem to find it anywhere. I'll have to remember it next time I hit the DVD store, sounds awesome.

[Eastkun]

I love this movie. I wonder why it didn't do good in theatres.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

It wasn't released in many cinemas in the US and I don't think it was released in cinemas anywhere world-wide. That would have hurt the boxoffice intake. They didn't have much money to advertise it because its an independent film and the 20 million they spent was already over their budget. But its a great movie! See it!

[bigsleepj]

It wasn't released in many cinemas in the US and I don't think it was released in cinemas anywhere world-wide.

I beg to differ. I saw it in the cinema in 2002 / 2003 when it was released here, but it had a terrible release, actually, only in a few theatres (consider it sheer accident that I saw it). It wasn't a wide release. If it had been a mega-block-buster it would have had a better release but it didn't so I think they skimped on cinemas in other territories outside the US. It probably showed (in your case) in only a few cities in Australia and not in others.