Equilibrium

[Guest Sharpie]

Equilibrium was made in 2002, but didn't get that much publicity. It wasn't in too many theaters, but it one of the best movies I have seen.

In a post-apocolyptic world, emotion has been outlawed. Emotion is what breeds war, which is what almost destroyed the world. Everyday, people take an injection of a drug that takes away their emotions.

But there of coarse has to be the few who don't want to lose their emotions. These few are called "sense offenders". The police hunt then down and kill them. There are a select few people called "Clerics", which help the police. They are the select few, they can kill you before you even get a shot off. The use a style of fighting called the Gun Kata which is explained as:

"[i]The Gun Katas: Through analysis of thousands of recorded gun fights, the Cleric has determined that the geometric distribution of antagonists in any gun battle is a statistically predictable element.

The Gun Kata treats the gun as a total weapon. Each new position representing a maximum kill zone, inflicting maximum damage on the maximum number of opponents, while keeping the defendant clear of the statistically traditional trajectories of return fire.[/i]"

The best Cleric of them all is John Preston. He goes in, and kills "Sense Offenders" swifty, accuratly, and without a care. But when happens when he misses a dose of the emotion-limiting drug and starts to fell? And on top of that, likes it?

I urge you all to go out and rent/buy Equilibrium. The fights are Matrix-like, except without bullet time. Here's a little "teaser" Equilibrium gif I made (i love gifs)
[img]http://fateomcskippy.johnami.com/images/eq.gif[/img]

[terra]

Ah, my God. It's funny you just posted this, because I just saw it last week.

Anyway. Plotwise, I actually didn't think it was that great. In fact, I fell asleep during a little bit of it ... :p Anyway, I thought it was a very clever idea, the whole taking-away-of-emotion thing, but that it wasn't accomplished as well as it could've been. I can't put my finger on exactly why, I just think everything could've looked cooler. Of course, they probably didn't have much of a budget, but the fact that [i]nobody experienced emotion[/i] just wasn't as creepy as it should've been. I mean ... that's a pretty creepy idea.

Also, under the no-emotions rule, I wasn't sure why people got married and had families at all. I suspect it was just for continuation of the race, but that also wasn't as emphasized as I thought it should've been. Seeing a completely loveless marriage would've really spooked me ... Well ... I'm idealistic that way.

[spoiler]Also, The big "surprise" in which God (or whatever was the title of the thing John agreed to kill for the rebels) was a fake? That was not a surprise at all.[/spoiler]

But, I do think the fight scenes were amazing. I'm not an expert in fight scenes or cinematography though ... flashy and cool things tend to make me go "Wow" ... but I thought it was on par or perhaps beyond the Matrix Reloaded for the fight scenes. (You can't touch the original Matrix ... hehe.) The ideas were quite unique. I especially loved one specific moment [spoiler]in the scene where John was trying to let the dog go free but was caught. There was one thing, where two guys were pointing automatic weapons at him, and he sort of hit the guns with his hands so they were pointing back at the guys, and shot them. :D[/spoiler]

However, I think the part where [spoiler]he fights his new partner, the black guy, and his face slides off[/spoiler] was rather unnecessary ... The only part in the film that really made me go "Ewww," though, so not a bad grossness factor overall.

So yes. I, too, would recommend renting this, but more for the fight scenes than the plot.

EDIT: You spelled Equilibrium wrong in your banner, though not your post :( ... how sad ... other than that it's pretty cool.