Equilibrium: reviews - what gives?
12-06-02, 12:18 PM
#1
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Equilibrium: reviews - what gives?
The reviews for this are all over the place:
Film Threat gave it one star out of five:
http://www.filmthreat.com/Reviews.asp?Id=3846
Ebert gave it 3 out of 5:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/ebert...-equil06f.html
FilmForce gave it 5 out of 5 and called it the "best movie of the year":
http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/379/379351p1.html
Who's right?
Film Threat gave it one star out of five:
http://www.filmthreat.com/Reviews.asp?Id=3846
Ebert gave it 3 out of 5:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/ebert...-equil06f.html
FilmForce gave it 5 out of 5 and called it the "best movie of the year":
http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/379/379351p1.html
Who's right?
12-06-02, 01:49 PM
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It all depends on what you go in expecting.... this doesn't look to be a very "intelligent" film but more of a balls to the wall action/sci-fi flick. If you go in looking for deep story & meaning then I'm sure you will be disappointed, but if you go for a fun & crazy action popcorn movie without really putting alot of emphasis on story & character then I'm sure you'll leave happy. My local paper (Houston, Tx) gave it a B, but given I don't really agree with them that often that doesn't mean to much to me. I usually try to stay as far away as possible from movies like this, but to be honest I was somewhat intrigued by what I saw in the trailer and am having serious thoughts about checking it out.
12-06-02, 02:39 PM
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Based on the review (especially the people who wrote them) it seems like "sci-fi geeks" will it up for it's action and setting, but "art-****" will despise it for it's shallowness and what they precieve as being stupid. Whereas someone like Ebert will judge it somewhere along the middle.
12-06-02, 02:50 PM
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Just to clafiry: Ebert gave it three stars out of four, not five. Granted, he has given some films zero stars, but basically his scale is 1 - 4.
I just checked out the trailer and it doesn't look that bad. The poster is just piss-poor but the film does seem to have a little more thought in it than your typical action fare. Still, it's terrible when a movie displays a lot of ideas (albeit derivative ones) in the beginning and then forgets about them in favor of some guns 'n' kung-fu action. Hope that isn't the case here.
I just checked out the trailer and it doesn't look that bad. The poster is just piss-poor but the film does seem to have a little more thought in it than your typical action fare. Still, it's terrible when a movie displays a lot of ideas (albeit derivative ones) in the beginning and then forgets about them in favor of some guns 'n' kung-fu action. Hope that isn't the case here.
Last edited by Tyler_Durden; 12-06-02 at 02:53 PM.
12-06-02, 07:17 PM
#7
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Wholly crap! I had no idea! I just read a review of this randomly in my local paper and the reviewer loved it. Usually he hates flicks like this. I watched the trailer and it looks like a cross between the Matrix and Minority Report. I can't wait to see this!
12-07-02, 09:32 AM
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The ad running in the newspaper has a blurb from some nobody critic that says Equilibrium is better than The Matrix. Uh huh. These lower-tier critics (Jeanne Wolf being their leader) amuse me.
12-07-02, 12:49 PM
#10
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Wow, I saw this last night. It was friggin' amazing. It reminds me alot of F-451, Blade Runner and Dark City all combined. The action scenes are amazing. The gun work is among the best I've ever seen. Definately something that needs to be seen to be believed!
12-07-02, 01:02 PM
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Saw this movie last night. Simply amazing.
If you can go in with the mind-set that this movie was made for only $20 million, you're in for a treat.
To be honest, I think Equilibrium's fight scenes are more impressive than those in The Matrix. There's no big wire-fu scenes, no bullet-time, just incredibly intricate fight choreography. The movie sets you up for this with a nice opening scene, and some info provided on the basic idea of "Gun-Kata".
The reviews for this movie is inexplicable, as is the lack of marketing for this film. If you're on the fence, trust me and GO SEE THIS MOVIE! Decide for yourself whether the story elements work or not.
IMHO, if you're going to borrow sci-fi/dystopian future concepts, why not borrow from the best? (1984, Brave New World, F-451)
If you can go in with the mind-set that this movie was made for only $20 million, you're in for a treat.
To be honest, I think Equilibrium's fight scenes are more impressive than those in The Matrix. There's no big wire-fu scenes, no bullet-time, just incredibly intricate fight choreography. The movie sets you up for this with a nice opening scene, and some info provided on the basic idea of "Gun-Kata".
The reviews for this movie is inexplicable, as is the lack of marketing for this film. If you're on the fence, trust me and GO SEE THIS MOVIE! Decide for yourself whether the story elements work or not.
IMHO, if you're going to borrow sci-fi/dystopian future concepts, why not borrow from the best? (1984, Brave New World, F-451)
12-07-02, 01:50 PM
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The reviewer from my local paper said that it was like a parody of Faranheit 451 but where the actors weren't in on the joke. She said it was one of the most unintentionally funny movies of the year.
12-07-02, 03:28 PM
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The big thing that it "borrows" from F-451 is that a lead law enforcement authority figure fights against a totalitarian regime after contacting a woman.
According to the director, the tone of each movie couldn't be more different. Here's a direct quote from an interview he did with Sci-Fi Wire:
It stinks that critics aren't looking a little closer.....
According to the director, the tone of each movie couldn't be more different. Here's a direct quote from an interview he did with Sci-Fi Wire:
I'm concerned that people will watch this film and say, 'Well, it's just a remake of Fahrenheit 451,'" the filmmaker told SciFi Wire. "Fahrenheit 451 was about McCarthyism, and it's a story I love very much. ... I would never dream of retelling Fahrenheit 451, because I don't think it's an appropriate story to tell right now. I don't think there is any real censorship of ideas right now. In fact, I think there's quite an abundance of ideas, if not an overabundance of ideas."
For Wimmer, Equilibrium is more concerned with emotional repression than censorship. "To me, movies are an emotional drug, and every weekend my wife and I say, 'What emotion do we want to feel? Happy? Sad? Frightened?' We intentionally do that and sort of manipulate our brain chemistry in a very purposeful way. I see the [Motion Picture Association of America], with every film that comes out, narrowing the bottleneck of the emotional bandwidth that we're allowed to feel. ... It's not 100 percent obvious in Equilibrium – which I thought it would be – but all the contraband is rated EC-10, which is a not-so-subtle poke at NC-17, and it's why they're burning films when they're saying it. So I hope people will look a little deeper into the film, because it's not just a remake of Fahrenheit 451."
For Wimmer, Equilibrium is more concerned with emotional repression than censorship. "To me, movies are an emotional drug, and every weekend my wife and I say, 'What emotion do we want to feel? Happy? Sad? Frightened?' We intentionally do that and sort of manipulate our brain chemistry in a very purposeful way. I see the [Motion Picture Association of America], with every film that comes out, narrowing the bottleneck of the emotional bandwidth that we're allowed to feel. ... It's not 100 percent obvious in Equilibrium – which I thought it would be – but all the contraband is rated EC-10, which is a not-so-subtle poke at NC-17, and it's why they're burning films when they're saying it. So I hope people will look a little deeper into the film, because it's not just a remake of Fahrenheit 451."
Last edited by Gioman; 12-07-02 at 03:30 PM.
12-07-02, 04:44 PM
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what the hell is F-451 anyways? when was it made? whos in it? ive never even heard of it and thats all people seem to mention when talking about equilibrium.
should i see f-451 before equilibrium?
should i see f-451 before equilibrium?
12-07-02, 04:55 PM
#16
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F451 is short for Fahrenheit 451
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0060390
It's based on a Ray Bradbury novel of the same name, here's a short synopsis:
The storyline for Equilibrium seems derivative of F451, but i don't think it's required viewing before seeing Equilibrium
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0060390
It's based on a Ray Bradbury novel of the same name, here's a short synopsis:
In an oppressive future, a fireman whose duty is to destroy all books begins to question his task
12-07-02, 06:47 PM
#17
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I saw it, and it's not bad. The characterizations aren't that deep, but if you are okay with 2-dimensional archetypes, the action at the end will reward your patience (if you like action/fight scenes).
I'd give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.
I'd give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.
12-08-02, 12:04 AM
#18
DVD Talk Limited Edition
I read some of the reviews and I have to wonder if the critics even saw the flick or if they've become to jaded at being paid to watch movies. Even if they didn't like the movie, what made them pop out the claws in ways they didn't for Kung Pow, Rollerball, or any of the other paint by numbers, merely for profit crap that is released every year (sorry, didn't mean to sound like AA)
Isn't it worse to try and possibly fail to make meaningful movie than to intend to make crap all along??
I suppose your appreciation of this movie hinges on two things, your tolerance for sci-fi, some people just don't like. And whether or not you can buy Christian Bale in his performance. The "meat" of the film is the tranformation that Bale's character makes as he comes to learn this new world of emotions. It's a hard thing to act....and if you don't buy, the movie probably seems silly or just bad.
But I loved it!!!!!!
It makes sense that the movie is being buried, I mean, could Hollywood accept that bad-ass action scenes can be filmed without the use of wire-fu and bad CGI? Nope, Hollywood is quite happy taking its Prozium, ignorant of the non-wire fu way! (Not that I don't like wire-fu, but every single movie doesn't call for it)
Bale is a total bad-ass in this movie, the last 15 minutes are such an adrenaline rush. The
was flat out brilliant. And sword fighting is always appreciated too!
Isn't it worse to try and possibly fail to make meaningful movie than to intend to make crap all along??
I suppose your appreciation of this movie hinges on two things, your tolerance for sci-fi, some people just don't like. And whether or not you can buy Christian Bale in his performance. The "meat" of the film is the tranformation that Bale's character makes as he comes to learn this new world of emotions. It's a hard thing to act....and if you don't buy, the movie probably seems silly or just bad.
But I loved it!!!!!!
It makes sense that the movie is being buried, I mean, could Hollywood accept that bad-ass action scenes can be filmed without the use of wire-fu and bad CGI? Nope, Hollywood is quite happy taking its Prozium, ignorant of the non-wire fu way! (Not that I don't like wire-fu, but every single movie doesn't call for it)
Bale is a total bad-ass in this movie, the last 15 minutes are such an adrenaline rush. The
Spoiler:
12-08-02, 12:25 AM
#19
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Originally posted by clemente
Bale is a total bad-ass in this movie, the last 15 minutes are such an adrenaline rush. The
was flat out brilliant. And sword fighting is always appreciated too!
Bale is a total bad-ass in this movie, the last 15 minutes are such an adrenaline rush. The
Spoiler:
All I could think about during the last 15 minutes:
Spoiler:
12-08-02, 02:45 AM
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My friend and I went to see this tonight based solely off the description on moviefone.com. I haven't kept up with movies as much as I used to, but I have seen no trailers or posters for this movie. So I had no idea what to expect other than it had Christian Bale. I must say this movie rocked. The fight scenes were just amazing. We are debating on seeing it again just to watch the gun fights again. It reminded me of the first time I saw The Matrix. Definitely worth seeing.
12-08-02, 03:17 AM
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Why is this movie only getting limited treatment? I've barely seen ads for it, and only a few reviews....it's not hyped up as much as it should be. C'mon, Christain Bale and Taye Diggs are pretty marketable stars, a lot of people know who they are. And you got a supporting cast including Emily Watson! And no ads? WTF?
12-08-02, 03:17 AM
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Why is this movie only getting limited treatment? I've barely seen ads for it, and only a few reviews....it's not hyped up as much as it should be. C'mon, Christain Bale and Taye Diggs are pretty marketable stars, a lot of people know who they are. And you got a supporting cast including Emily Watson! And no ads? WTF?
12-08-02, 02:52 PM
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Originally posted by candyrocket786
Clemente you are wrong about Bale........he is the Ultimate Bad-Ass in this film. (Too bad the suits at Dimension had their heads so far up there a$$es they failed to realize this)
Clemente you are wrong about Bale........he is the Ultimate Bad-Ass in this film. (Too bad the suits at Dimension had their heads so far up there a$$es they failed to realize this)
Saw this last night & was probably blown away more by this movie then any movie I've seen in the last 5 + years & it's already one of my favorite movies ever. The movie is pure Sci-Fi the likes of which are rarely made any more yet it's also a great R rated action movie the likes of which are rarely made any more, & the fight scenes are absolutely hands down & don't care what anyone says WAYYYYYYYYYYYY better than the Matrix. AND IT WAS MADE FOR UNDER $20 million dollars.
I was practically yelling & in chills at the end on how cool it was when
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Absolutely 10 our of 10 5 stars the works. This movie is as good as it gets. And everyone needs to go out & support it.
