Movie Review: Equilibrium
Steph and I belong to Netflix, and we enjoy it a lot more now that they've added a TX based distribution center. Movies show up within two days now.About two weeks ago, I went online and started clicking on movies that they were suggesting, but I had seen, much less never heard of, to see how well their automated selection was working. We ended up with Timeline, Twisted, and Equilibrium.
Turns out, we'd seen Timeline before, and it's so-so. A simple plot, easy to understand character motives, and un-believable technology makes a good kids movie (the PG-13 rating is a whole other post).
Twisted, we watched ... and were quite disappointed with. Ashley Judd does a decent job of playing the crazed semi-criminal, but after about the fourth drug-alcohol-induced blackout, I was yawning. The ending (not spoiled here) was also quite apparent as soon as you match up what the celebrities involve charge for their on-screen appearances and what they do in the film.
Equilibrium was quite another thing. I'm a huge Sci-Fi fanatic, and this movie had enough action to keep me entertained (though perhaps not quite the Matrix) and a real plot. The writers did a great job (IMHO) of pulling together the various political, social, and psychological elements -- and the result was a gripping movie. Christian Bale, an excellent actor, did a wonderful job of pulling off being un-emotional in a movie.
I was prepared to be disappointed .... the movie is about a drug-induced society which has sacrificied emotion and feelings (senses) for better efficiency and less war and crime. They follow "father", the creator of a new drug (Prozac?) which is designed to mellow everyone out. Citizens all wear the same clothing, do similar job functions, and are killed for having anything which may evoke their senses.
My concern would be that the actors would be boring -- actors get paid to show emotion in their faces / bodies. How were they getting paid in this movie, in which they could show none? Christian Bale did not disappoint, and I truly believed that he was witnessing the emotions he felt, for the first time.
My fascination w/ Martial Arts (being a practitioner of Krav Maga and a certified Haganah instructor) and my current job roles combined perfectly as the movie explained the role of the "gun kata". Talk about efficiency! The top level "clerics" are taught these advanced kata's, improving their ability to strike down an opponent, and to defend themselves, all based on the statistical distribution of opponents and weapons.
I think this will go in with my collection of Memento, and a few other top-notch movies.
As for Netflix and their optiziming ... I'd give it a 40% rating.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home