Usually a film as unoriginal and derivative as this would deserve great scorn . We see such unlikely bedfellows such as BLAKES 7 , FARENHEIT 451 , 1984 and THE MATRIX all rolled in to one , but for some incredible reason that is difficult to pin down EQUILBRUIM succeeds in working . It's not a massive success and you can understand why it didn't do anything at the American box office since it has a very European look and feel which director Kurt Wimmer deserves some congratulations for
Where the film does fall down is when it tries to pander to a prospective American teen audience with its MATRIX inspired shoot outs which are very silly . If you do enough martial arts you'll be able to dodge an avalanche of bullets ? Hardly credible and is even more unconvincing in the time frame which has literally dozens of bad guys blown away . Think about it ? How long does it take an armed bad guy cock and point his weapon at someone ? two seconds ? Three seconds ? For some reason it takes countless seconds for nameless extras to point a gun at Christian Bale's hero . You also feel screenwriter Wimmer should have spent more time coming up with a subtext and more effective ending . I enjoyed the back story of a society not allowed to feel emotion on pain of death but this should have been explored far more than it is on screen
Wimmer has cast very well with a largely British cast but if you feel you've been cheated by well known names I'd agree with you . Sean Bean only has something like three scenes , Watson in the region of four while Sean Pertwee doesn't actually appear in the flesh . Once famous actor David Hemmings makes an appearance which is quite literally blink and you'll miss it . At the end of the day I guess the producers probably knew EQUILIBRUIM would find its market on video/DVD rather than the cinema therefore didn't hype up the casting too much
Where the film does fall down is when it tries to pander to a prospective American teen audience with its MATRIX inspired shoot outs which are very silly . If you do enough martial arts you'll be able to dodge an avalanche of bullets ? Hardly credible and is even more unconvincing in the time frame which has literally dozens of bad guys blown away . Think about it ? How long does it take an armed bad guy cock and point his weapon at someone ? two seconds ? Three seconds ? For some reason it takes countless seconds for nameless extras to point a gun at Christian Bale's hero . You also feel screenwriter Wimmer should have spent more time coming up with a subtext and more effective ending . I enjoyed the back story of a society not allowed to feel emotion on pain of death but this should have been explored far more than it is on screen
Wimmer has cast very well with a largely British cast but if you feel you've been cheated by well known names I'd agree with you . Sean Bean only has something like three scenes , Watson in the region of four while Sean Pertwee doesn't actually appear in the flesh . Once famous actor David Hemmings makes an appearance which is quite literally blink and you'll miss it . At the end of the day I guess the producers probably knew EQUILIBRUIM would find its market on video/DVD rather than the cinema therefore didn't hype up the casting too much