The other day i was browsing wikipedia about random things. I got to Batman Begins somehow, and from there went to Christian Bale to check out his movies. Besides the movie listing, there was a picture of him from the movie Equilibrium, a movie that i have never heard of, so i checked it out.
The description compared it to the Matrix and Brave New World, says that it was a futuristic thriller where society is the enemy. This sounded pretty good, so i went out to Best Buy and picked up a copy.
Bad Move.
While Equilibrium sounds pretty good on the surface, i was quite disappointed with the results. All the promo's on the DVD jacket stated that it's gun fighting techniques were top-notch, however in execution, the were too over-the-top, set to horrible background music, and just looked goofy. This movie prides itself on it's gun fighting, but there's not enough of it, and it's awkward in execution.
The story of Equilibrium is set in the future, when society has developed a drug to supress emotions in humans, since emotions are what triggers conflict, war, etc. Society has a team of police that hunt down anyone not taking the drug, and they also destroy anything that has to do with emotion. The future is completely black and white. Sounds pretty pretentious.
What was really disappointing was the acting. or perhaps it was acted so well, that Christian Bale perfectly executed the dull process of a emotion-less tool into a senseful human. Christian Bale himself is pretty emotionless in his acting in the first place.. perhaps he wasn't the best choice.
Christian Bale is an interesting fellow, though. I hardly EVER hear about him at all, yet he has a little cult following known as Bale-heads. He's extremely buff yet acts in B movies, aside from Batman Begins. American Psycho was the only other movie i remember him being in that i have actually seen, and ever then i didn't ever know his name.
anyways.. the story was par, i'd say. there were too many plot twists at the end that made it unbelievable, not that the story wasn't pretty far-fetched in the first place.
I really should have rented this movie if i wanted to see it.. oops. It puzzled me why there wasn't a copy at any of the used movie stores i went to, and i have come to the conclusion that no one bought the movie in the first place.. They must have rented it instead.
Though i still kinda like Christian Bale, i think i'll check out The Machinist next. apparently, in preparation for the movie he lost 63 pounds to fit the role, and then after shooting he gained it back for the Buffed up Bruce Wayne.