(Review originally written at 1 August 2005)
For some odd reason IMDb is the only place were this movie is being praised. In most countries this movie didn't even got a theatrical release or was only shown in a very limited amount of theaters and only for a short period. There is a very good reason for this for "Equilibrium" simply is not a good movie. It really is nothing more than an average B-science-fiction movie and on top of that it's terrible unoriginal. Especially when you've seen movies like "Fahrenheit 451", "THX 1138", "1984", "Metropolis", "Blade Runner"...must I really go on? Basically there is no movie in the science-fiction genre were this movie didn't 'borrowed' heavily from.
The concept itself of the movie isn't that terrible and the movie starts of quite promising but the movie never really becomes interesting after that point and the story gets predictable and doesn't always flow well. It's obvious that director Kurt Wimmer still has some learning to do when it comes to storytelling.
Yes the movie does deserve praise for its visual look. It's obvious that the movie didn't had a terribly high budget and I must see that they handled this well and made the best out of it.
The fight scene's are fairly good but simply too much over-the-top to find it really entertaining or believable. Also the ending disappoints heavily and overall the movie leaves a bad aftertaste.
Christian Bale on the other hand is simply cool and wonderful in his role and he portrays a good main character/hero. Sean Bean also has a quite good role but don't be fooled people, his role is very limited, the same goes for William Fichtner.
Quite frankly I don't see what this movie has got to distinct itself from other B-science-fiction movies. It has a unlikely and silly handled story that never flows really well and the action leaves a pointless impression. Yes not a lot of people are going to agree with me on this but in my opinion the critics were absolutely right this time. You're way better of watching a real science-fiction classic and masterpiece such as the movies I mentioned earlier above. This movie isn't even good or entertaining as a science-fiction action movie. In my humble opinion this movie is only still watchable thanks to Christian Bale.
5/10
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