Buy This DVD Now By Clicking On The Text Link Below!
Equilibrium
Stars:
Christian Bale, Emily Watson, Taye Diggs, Angus MacFadyen, Sean Bean, Matthew
Harbour, Sean Pertwee, and William Fichtner
Writer:
Kurt Wimmer
Director:
Kurt Wimmer
Feature
length: 107 minutes
Extras:
Director’s Commentary, Director’s and Producer’s Commentary, Featurette,
and Bonus Trailers
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 18
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2002/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Dimension Films
Home
Video Distributor: Dimension Home Video
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Sometime
after the Third World War, a totalitarian society has arisen that forces it’s
citizens to take emotional numbing medications to remove great highs and lows in
behavior and subsequently has censored all feelings and artifacts related to
them with those found to be guilty of “Sense Crime” to be immediately
detained and executed. Outside in the rumbles of the old world, resistance
fighters are slaughtered by commando squads led by the elite and deadly clerics,
who use a futuristic form of fighting that combines statistics, martial arts,
and gun fighting. Christian Bale is a cleric who discovers what it is to feel
after a series of incidents push him to the brink and subsequently turn him into
an enemy of the state and resistance hero.
Writer
and Director Kurt Wimmer is not ashamed to acknowledge all of the inspirations
that he knows genre film fans will be quick to notice and these elements are
quite obvious with bits of “1984,” “Metropolis,” “Logan’s Run,”
“Brave New World,” “Brazil,” “Judge Dredd,” “Fahrenheit 451,”
and “The Matrix” thrown in for good measure and yet somewhere within this
hodgepodge of genre elements is a voice that is unique onto itself. As he
describes in his own feature length audio commentary track, “1984” was about
Stalinism, “Fahrenheit 451” was about McCarthyism, and “Equilibrium” is
about numbness. The metaphor for appearances versus reality and even chronic
apathy lies in a wide range literature and drama so I do not see this film as a
rip off of “The Matrix” anymore than someone could say “The Matrix”
reminds me to “The Terminator” or “Zardoz.” Essentially a “Matrix”
or machine can be seen as the force that makes the individual decide if he or
she will be a cog in the system or whether they will strive for their dreams.
This image is a part of the collective unconscious of all Earth bound sentient
beings and can be seen in a diverse number of forms whether it is a Galactic
Empire of “Star Wars” or the man who lives his entire life without ever
doing a single thing he wanted such as “Babbitt.”
What
I did find a bit troublesome sometimes was buying into a few of the contrivances
of this futuristic world, which just ends itself too cleanly for my taste, but
while imperfect, “Equilibrium” is an enjoyable sci-fi action film that has a
lot more going for it than you might expect if you give it a chance. The casting
is for the most part perfect and while there is martial arts style fighting
sequences, they are not like anything I ever saw before. In particular the
“Gun Katras” was a nice inventive and even believable conceit the film pulls
off quite nicely and thankfully there is no people jumping around defying the
laws of gravity as has been the case with many post-Matrix films. While the
commentary with Director Kurt Wimmer is more on the esthetic side, the
commentary he shares with producer Lucas Foster is a bit more technical and
screen specific with regard to the production itself and not simply the story
aspects.
A
short behind-the-scenes featurette (4:26) and bonus trailers that include a
“Dimension Cutting Edge Films” promo (1:54) as well as trailers for “Kill
Bill” (1:51), “Wes Craven Presents Dracula II: Ascension” (1:01),
“Invincible” (1:03), and “Below” sum up the extra features included on
this DVD.
“Equilibrium”
is presented in a sharp anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio with a
lively English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack and optional English
Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired. The menus are standard
interactive still frames that are easy to navigate. “Equilibrium” will debut
on DVD-Video on Tuesday, May 13, 2003 from Dimension Home Video and is well
worth a look.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
Buy This DVD Now By Clicking On The Text Link Below!
Equilibrium