I just finished watching the movie Equilibrium and I have to say WOW. It claims to kick the matrix's ass and holy shit does it ever. Now I did like the matrix, but this one I liked more I think, and ironicially enough, I think I like it for the same reasons I liked the original Matrix. It came out of nowhere, I hadn't really seen much about it, and it ended up surpassing my expectations. It also didn't have anyone in it. No big names anyway, a couple of players of bit parts here and there (the biggest being either the guy who plays John Doe or the guy who played Boromir in Lord of the Rings, both of whom were not in it for very long).
I remember hearing about this movie.... six months? A year ago? Something like that, and thinking "that sounds really really cool," but then nothing really came of it. I then saw it while in the video store the other day and was reminded about it. I managed to get my hands on a copy and I must say, this is going to be a purchase soon.
No one seems to really be talking about this movie, so I hope to spread the word on how good it is!
The movie is a sci-fi mix of 1984, The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Fahrenheit 451, and A Brave New World all rolled into one (oh, and a bit of Vulcan philosophy in there as well). Read on for a review and possible (but not intended) spoilers.
The gist of the movie is that the cause of the pain and heartache, and war, and violence, and all the other bad stuff in the world is emotion, and therefor, it must be suppressed. In this Orwellian future everyone takes emotion suppressants, the city (world?) is under military law, and anyone caught with contraband, or accused of "sense crimes" is liable to be executed on the spot, or taken back to "The Palace of Justice" for execution via incineration.
The police forces (looking very black and mostly like modern versions of the SS) are helped out by the Elite ass kickers, called the Clerics, who can go in and clear out a room full of armed aggressors with a pistol or two, without breaking a sweat. Perfect calmness and lack of emotion as well as being trained in "gunkata" are what they use. Gunkata sounds pretty silly IMHO, but it's the art of using statistics in gun battles, wherein a practicer of gunkata can know statistically where his opponants will be firing, and using practiced moves based on the geometry of those statistics... well, kick ass. It ends up meaning really that you get some absolutely awsome gun battles.
Anyway, the most elite of the elite accidently forgets to take his emotion suppressant, starts to "feel", and eventually you see (again) why you never ever train a soldier so powerful that you can't stop him if he decides to come after you. The story is moderately predictable, but good enough that I was on the edge as to what was going to happen, or how easily something would work out, or if it was going to be a classic tragic story or not. I won't spoil the ending though.
There wasn't a lot of fighting, unlike another movie I could mention. There was a lot of tense moments, and examination of the world that the story takes place in, with the kick ass fight scenes topping things off perfectly. Even the world described I thought was fascinating. Somewhere in the not too distant future, with giant billboards proclaiming 24 hours a day lists of contraband merchandise, why "Father" is so good, what the causes of evil and war are, how great everyone is to be following this path, and how emotion must be stamped out. People sit in perfect rows with heavily armed guards in black face masks and heavy machine guns wander through their ranks, children ask if they should report on a friend they saw crying ("of course, it's the law") and you get a very good feel of what the world might have been like if Hitler had won, with children turning their parents in and order being kept simply because of the threat of immediate, lethal force should you do anything that could even be percieved as wrong.
The movie was a bit disturbing in parts, but in a good way I thought. Not "good" good, but good as in it really made the movie. Seeing how people lived in complete blandness, pure white cars, grey walls all around them, stopping on the streets all at the same time to shoot up with their emotional suppressant all at the same time.... people being identified and pulled off the street (presumably not for a mayoral medal) after being pointed out.... A great, dark movie.
So if you haven't gotten it already, this movie kicked ass and is a must rent/buy/download for most who would read this, or read this far anyway...
Posted by Arcterex at June 05, 2003 12:03 AM
yeah, it was a great idea. It definitely fell short of the Matrix however. There may be faults in every movie but this one had some core problems. Why still live in family units? Why would Taye Diggs' character ask an emotionless person if he was "close with his partner"? What happens if it is found that music and color are helpful in 'optimizing' human potential? It seems that the people could have been more robot like or the whole idea must be turned around. Maybe too little time was spent on this unique idea that is more complex than could fit into the confines of this movie. Perhaps all of what I say could be explained away by the fact that maybe this empire had not existed for very long in the first place. oh well, I would give it a
B-.
I saw this movie in full yesterday after a LAN I was at. It was awesome. Up there with The Matrix, although I wouldn't say it surpasssed it. If anyone notices the flag and any similarities to another this movie seems like it could be a future Schindlers List.
Posted by: Coder2000 on June 23, 2003 07:22 AMI'm afraid that I can't agree about "Equilibrium" being a better movie than "The Matrix" -- the film studios will have a VERY hard time knocking that one from its position as my favorite movie of all time. However, there's no question that "Equilibrium" is an excellent if rather unsung film. I have a particular fondness for cyberpunk, and this is a good addition to the genre. A friend gave it to me on DVD because he thought I'd like it -- and I was impressed at the sheer simplicity of some of the cinematography. What I wasn't happy with, however, were a few overly blatant homages (or should it be ripoffs?) to other films such as "Blade Runner" and "Fahrenheit 451". If you get the DVD, listen to the director's commentary -- it's fascinating (although the man does seem to have trouble remembering to pause for breath...)
Posted by: GigiNYC on November 4, 2003 04:27 PMlisten here all you dumb shits, if anyone still comes here,you need to the most skubba the do that shit to keep a movie interesting and not to fuck it up and as for the b- you are fuckin stupid and it is fucking better than the matrix
Posted by: tuna on January 9, 2004 04:32 PMSome guy in IRC mentioned the movie and said it rocked. I never heard of it before so I decided to download it, to see if it was any good. Boy it was. After I watched it, I went to buy the DVD immediately, I can only recommend for everyone to do the same :)
Posted by: LsH on January 25, 2004 04:47 AMWow, I just finished watching it myself a second ago, since my brother rented it. I was expecting a second-rate Matrix rip-off, and was pleasantly shocked to find it was a genuinely awesome film. The action scenes are breath-taking, and I think considering the dilemma of how to make a film about senseless people interesting, I think the creators did an amazing job. Definitely up there with the first Matrix film, but despite my expectations, the two are actually different enough that I don't think I'd want to say one is better than the other. Besides, if I did I'd be biased since it's ages since I last watched the Matrix, and I only finished watching Equilibrium minutes ago.
Posted by: Jez on May 10, 2004 04:44 PM