Wednesday, March 16

Movie Review: Equilibrium (2002)


Length: 1 hr & 47 min
Released: 2002
Genre:  Action, Drama, & Sci-Fi 
Rating: R
Where I Got It: Netflix

SUMMARY:

In a Fascist future where all forms of feeling are illegal, a man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system.











TRAILER:






REVIEW:
I’ve seen bits and pieces of this film, but this was the first time I actually sat down and watched all of it. Well, I was forced against my will to give this film another chance by BF. 

Well……I can admit when I am wrong. 

This was much better and made much more sense actually watching it from beginning to end. 

This was a lot like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, but with more action and a badass main hero. There are a few people who complained about this, BUT I actually liked it since I hated those two books with a passion. I THINK it was better than both of those books. 

The main hero, Preston, was once a “baddie” who was an enforcement officer for the government. His sole job is to protect the country and help rid of anything that is outlawed and people who break the number one rule: expressing any feelings. What? Yes. This society anything that makes you feel “dangerous” feelings such as art, religion, literature, and so forth is banned. Along with that having emotions is a no-no. Why? Because these things are what caused wars, misery, and all the other horrible human things. To help with this, people are given daily doses of medicine to assist in this numbing of feelings that are bad. 

Of course our hero has his eyes opened by numerous events and unnecessary deaths. He decides to stop taking his medicine and fight for the end of this society. Which is a scary thing, because he is trained in a special martial arts and he is the top dog of this. Not a good thing. 

Okay…so this movie had more depth then what I thought. The character was more complex then I original warranted. He is a badass for sure, but he has so many issues that he didn’t realize he had until he got off the making-you-a-robot drug. This film and the character really made you think. Both sides have valid points. 

The dystopia society has good points? Why yes they do. For instance….more people have died in the name of religion then any disease or sickness. Religion is based solely on emotion, so cutting out emotion and religion will cut unnecessary wars. However….they kill puppies and burn beautiful art. NOT okay. If animals don’t hold a purpose in this society, then they are not needed. They don’t understand the concept of love and companionship, so they will be eliminated. Yes, there was a scene that Preston and his officers found a compound of contraband stuff and it is rule to eliminate it. And at that compound they had puppies. :( Luckily Preston was off the medicine….he managed to save one puppy. So cute, but sad. 

Now, the ending? I’m not sure. The final fight was pretty epic, but I don’t think it’s likely even with Preston badass skills. I’ll admit I didn’t see it coming since I am well verse in stories like this….so it was nice to see something different than the norm, but it seemed unlikely and impossible. However, it was nice. 

In the end, this was WAY better than I original thought. I liked it much better than other films/books in this genre. The acting was pretty good, the story thought-provoking, and there was some action to make it appealing to the eye. I recommend this if you like this genre with a touch of action. Out of five stars, I stamp this with 4 stars. One star for the cold-hearted murder of puppies LOL! 




Re-watch?: Yes






5 comments:

Blodeuedd said...

I loved this one

Melliane said...

it's always great when it's better than what we thought

Carole Rae said...

B, it was good.

Melliane, I'm glad I gave it another shot.

Anachronist said...

May-be...:)

Carole Rae said...

;)