EQUILIBRIUM
Reviewed by Karen Kunawicz
While REIGN OF FIRE had a lot of hype and dragons surrounding its release in theaters here, I was disappointed with the storytelling and the characters. To the point where I wanted the dragons to win and just wipe out the human race. GO DRAGONS GO! Not even Christian Bale's dark and grim stares or Matthew McConaughey's over the top redneck hardcore army
guy could save the script, story and directing.
EQUILIBRIUM was released on Manila screens without much hype and fanfare but when it comes to Sci-fi B Movies, this one totally SATISFIES!
Borrow some elements from the Matrix, Gattaca, 1984 and throw in a little bit of Minority Report and you have the future world of Libria where war is eliminated by eliminating hate and anger, by eliminating human emotion. Dressing up in colors, listening to music, keeping works of art, falling in love, smiling, crying are included in the forms prohibited behavior. Enforcing the rules are the "Grammaton Clerics" masters of gun-kata and able to intuit when someone is feeling even a dint of emotion.
Christian Bale plays John Preston, Grammaton Cleric extraordinaire who skips his shots of the emotion-controlling Prozium, and this is where the fun begins.
The action and fight scenes are first rate. Gun-kata (which has kung-fu foundations, according to my action star cousin) was especially created for the film by director Kurt Wimmer. He says in the April issue of EMPIRE magazine, "I did it in my yard with two prop guns and I just worked it out. It's fairly self-evident. I didn't cover nearly all the stuff that I came up with. It was a little bit better in my head but I'm pleased with the reaction."
Gun-kata claims to be a statistical defense against gunfire, analyzing conventional lines of attack so the clerics can move to "avoid" bullets, and then assume positions where, by using guns as extensions of the body, they can wreak maximum damage.
Though Wimmer laughingly adds in EMPIRE, "It's strictly a cinematic conceit, I wouldn't advocate anybody try this at home!"
I am definitely getting the DVD. My apologies to my favorites Jet Li and Mark Dacascos but Cradle to the Grave scenes absolutely pale in comparison. Transporter didn't show anything really "new" and since it was set in the real world, present day the scenes were too fantastical.
By the way, Sean Bean a.k.a. Boromir is in it too. And the poor bloke dies again. But what does he care? He's probably laughing on the way to the bank.
Is Christian Bale married?
For any info about Christian Bale's marital status, please email Karen at: karen@darkelfmanila.com.