Reaction And Review: Equilibrium

Welcome ladies and gentlenerds to a new episode of "killb94's Reaction And Review"!
Today I'm taking a look at a dystopian SciFi action movie from 2002, that movie is none other than "Equilibrium".
Now, all I know about this movie is that many claim this to be a ripoff of the Matrix series and that's something that kind of upsets me going in: I frankly don't give a SHIT about those damn movies. Yes, I know this is going to piss off so many fanboys, but it's true. I don't like the Matrix movies because I find them to be all over the place and contrived as hell. Also I hate them for all the prise they get for being "original" when it's not fucking true, little do the fans know, Matrix has a LOT of credit to give to ANOTHER dystopian action movie which is 1998 "Dark City", a film that aside being actually GOOD, gets constantly fogotten and even trashed in favour of Matrix.
...So why the hell am I watching this supposed Matrix ripoff if I already hate Matrix on its fucking own?

Well, the reason is because a friend of mine from YouTube, Agent Simpson 327 happends to have "Equilibrium" as his all time favorite movie and he insisted, and insisted, AND INSISTED that I must watch it.
So to shut his little canadian mouth up, I decided to risk and so I actually bought the DVD of the movie to be the new episode of this series.
Thanks to this delightful compromise, I shall have the honour of tearing this movie to pieces in case it happends to be shitty as Matrix, another thing that fuels my pessimism towards this movie is the fact that it's directed by the same asshole who gave us "Ultraviolent", which I quite frankly consider to be one of the worst Science Fiction movies I've ever fucking seen.
...But hey, MAYBE despite all this little film may turn out to be as brilliant as Simpson insists. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, ATTEMPT to relax, and check out... "Equilibrium"!

2 MINUTES LATER...
...People... These are some of the silliest looking guards/footsoldiers I've ever seen; these guys wear black leather jackets... With black motorbike helmets on. Pretty CHEAP if you ask me.
Well, the S.W.A.T. guys could look better... If only their kevlar gilets weren't shaped like a friggin E-collar. FOR GOODNESS SAKE, "Untraviolent" featured footsoldiers who wore fucking gas masks and they looked like shit... Great, I'm hating this movie already...

10 MINUTES LATER...
Okay, I really have to say that Christian Bale here is doing a great job in acting like someone who's DESPERATELY trying not to show any sort of emotion. I just wanted to share this with you guys... Maybe this film will be at least DECENT...

2 MINUTES LATER...
I want to know... Does this movie take place in France? Though I can recognize Berlin in some shots of this metropolis, I'm starting to think this is France because early in the movie they burn the original Mona Lisa painting and now Sean Bean's character is sitting in a destroyed cathedral that looks alot like Notre Dame...

25 MINUTES LATER...
Allright, more proof that this may took place in France: there's a snow globe with the Eiffel Tower inside. I know I'm proabably breaking your testicles with this bullshit about the film being set in France, but if I was commenting on more important stuff NOW I would probably just repeat myself down in the Review section, so try at least to understand why I'm doing this for the moment...

3 MINUTES LATER...
...AWFUCKINGSHIT among all the fucking dog breeds they could have used for this puppy they HAD to fucking pick a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy?!? That's my favorite breed ever, so now the emotional involvment in this scene is over 9000.

7 MINUTES LATER...
I can't fucking believe how much SUSPENSE they're building just by using two things: great acting... And a fucking puppy.
...I'm not making anything up, guys. I'm honestly on the edge of my seat right now.

30 MINUTES LATER...
Oh shit. I... Really wasn't expecting this to happen. And... It's pretty damn tragic. It's a death scene, but I will not spoil who it was, but I'll just repeat that it was emotionally sad and unexpected. This film has balls.

---

THE REVIEW

AT THE END OF THE FILM...
Well guys, that was "Equilibrium"... Woah, that was really cool.
Allright, so I think it's time we talk about the movie I just saw. First of all, I want to clarify that I find this movie to be alot better than Matrix, which is a very GOOD thing, and I bet people love to accuse this movie of being a ripoff of that overrated shit for TWO and rather IDIOTIC reasons: it's a dystopian movie and has some "insane" action in it.
...I call that bullshit and again, those movies are a ripoff of friggin "Dark City", so I'm afraid Matrix doesn't have some kind of originality high ground, therefore SHUT THE FUCK UP and don't be a bunch of hypocrites, please.
With that said, I'm not denying the fact that "Equilibrium" is indeed an action packed dystopian movie, but it has it's own kind of mythology in how the society is organized and has all its rules in it. And normally when someone has his own version of a dystopian society, often times the movies would fail and end up featuring mountains and mountains of bullshit that sort of ties in their version of it.
Luckly this isn't the case of "Dark City" and of course "Equilibrium", here it's done in a really clear and simple fashion, done very very well, nothing actually is bogged down or we're hammered over our head with the various rules that tie in to this kind of dystopian world, it's really easy to follow and that's exactly what you need in a movie.

So we have that, which is really cool, I'm really digging this futuristic totalitarian society which has survived World War 3 and in order to prevent a fourth one this empire has built a huge metropolis where people are reduced into emotionless drones by taking a daily dose of a drug called EC-10 and they employ a group of ninja-like gunslingers called Grammaton Clerics who go around outside the city haunting rebels and destroying any sourt of art or any other, you know, emotionally stimulating stuff, and the people who posses these things are labeled as "sense offenders" and get a rather fiery doom that I'm sure would make Adolf Hitler proud.
So we have this premise, which is really good and very well executed, I dig this twist on a dystopian society, I can both see how it could work but most of all I like its motivations, that was a really awesome thing.

Now... As for the story itself, it's written very well, our characters are all very well written, every character is well developed, every character you see in this movie you can genuinely feel for, which is a problem I notice in many films of this genre, that they're dull and lifeless and that's bad, but here it's absolutely good because... The characters are fucking FORCED against their will into being lifeless, and the whole movie is about snapping out of this psychological condition, but even before that they still manage to have a personality!
So, all the characters here are cool, relateable, have a decent amout of depth and I really enjoyed seeing them interact with each other. Nothing feels out of place and it's paced out very well in terms of writing and direction.

The acting of everyone who was cast in this movie complements the unforgiving and cold nature of the film's universe superbly. I would love to point out a single actor and say that stood out, it would be very tough, especially when you have people like Angus Macfadyen, Taye Diggs, Emily Watson, Sean Bean has a small yet memorable role, then we get to the major star who is Christian Bale, but ALL of them turn on a fantastic showing and all of them are giving a 100% in this and it totally shows.
So yes guys, the acting here is great, the casting was great, the writing was great, special effects... Now guys, this movie came out back in 2002 so yeah, some of the CGI may look a bit cartoony at points, but for the most part they're great for 2002 stardards. We also have fantastic fighting choreography and shootout scenes that are FAR better than the ones from Matrix without idiotic slow motion or that fucking bullet time shit. The Gun Kata of this film is the REAL thing.
Anyhow, all of the things I listed look great, it still holds up to today standards. Lighting here is really good because it has very dark and bleak atmosphere and the camerawork is done really well.

Overall, when it comes to this movie pretty much everything is done well... If there is something I have to complain is that while the premise about a society that oppresses emotions is rather original, the execution of it is... Well... Not that original.
Yes, sadly I must point out that to support the anti-emotion totalitarian society the makers of this movie has HEAVILY borrowed stuff from other dystopian stories; for instance the art and the other "emotionally stimulating material" is elmininated by an elité of pyromaniacs who bank these objects together and then carbonize them with flamethrowers just like in "Fahrenheit 451", but the biggest thing they kind of ripoff is George Orwell's "1984", since we have here The Father, which is essentialy an idolized figure exactly like the Big Brother, giant video screens throughout the city and airships that float through the skyline projecting propaganda everywhere, then we have children who spy on their parents and are willing to sue them if they happen to catch them showing any sourt of emotion and then the Grammaton Clerics are basically like the Thought Police. Then we have some nods to "Metropolis", Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" and "A Clockwork Orange". Frankly when Christian Bale's character drops the Eiffel Tower snow globe I was fucking expecting him to say: "Rosebud... Rosebud..."
It's kind of a pity that it had to rip off all these works, people. And don't tell me that there are just homages. NO. There's a difference between homage and a ripoff; the 2013 movie "Oblivion" had a rather original plot, being set in post-alien invasion Earth, and it was dotted with homages to various SciFi movies from the '60s and the '70s, but those were just for decoration if I'm allowed use a poor term.
"Equilibrium" instead is COMPLETELY revolved around the exact same structures and stuff "Fahrenheit 451" and "1984" has. This is not a small little homage, THIS IS BEING A CARBON COPY, and that's sadly some lazy writing.
Weeks before watching this movie Agent Simpson has told me that this movie would have blown my mind and not only that, but even more than "Mr. Nobody", which is my favorite movie of all time. Well, I'm afraid it's not true my dear friend... "Mr. Nobody" doesn't recycle entire plots from other movies!

Anyways, when it's all said and done can I possibly recommend "Equilibrium" to you guys? I think yes.
Even despite the whole thing about ripping off other dystopian films, this movie is still a well made film on its own rights, as I stated before it has great acting, effects and an effective and emotional story about redemption and search for truth and justice.
So if you happen to come accross "Equilibrium" then give it a watch, it's totally worth it.
Personally I feel like I don't really have to own this movie in my collection, but hey, it's not bad so I'll keep it and I guess I have to thank Agent Simpson for making me buy and watch it.
Keep enjoying this as your all time favorite film bud, but I guess you didn't watch as many dystopian films I did and if you actually watched "Mr. Nobody" you probably wouldn't have said that. Still, I'm not bashing this film, it's still a very character driven action SciFi film which despite some unoriginality has a soul.
(EDIT: I eat back all the things I said about this movie "ripping off" other dystopian stories, because I read that the back of the DVD cover describes the film as: "A tasty homage to classic Science Fiction, the film pays tribute to great authors such as Dick and Ballard." so this movie is SELF AWARE of the fact that it's borrowing stuff, therefore it's not a negative, it was done purposefully... And to be honest even "Mr. Nobody" references many other movies, so I'm not the wiser)
This movie also features what I personally consider to be the second best Christian Bale performance, I think it's better than his Batman (though he was a fine Bruce Wayne) but it's still not as prestigious as his performance in "American Psycho".
With that we come to the close of another episode of killb94's Reaction And Review, I hope you guys enjoyed it and I'll see you next time as soon as I can. Peace and prosper.