i am in total agreement. The film was well scripted, visually stunning and emotive on many levels. The coreography blew me away. I feel that apart from the costume and the genre, this film is completely independant of the matrix. The main plot, the surrender of ones emotional capacity for freedom of a kind, is detailed and involving enough to comlement the revolutionary style of action cinema. Simly breathtaking, the best film of the twentyfirst century to date.

two reasons why you have to respect this film
- the sword fight at the end was over very fast which is true to reality two train sword fights dont have long fights - and 99% of films mess this up with unrealist long sword fighting scenes - in reality you kill some one in the first 5 seconds probably less -
- the gun kata explains how one guy can kill so many minion -
The Ironic thing is this film gets slated for being unorigional? While die hard 3 is considered a great action film? yet its hardly origional. A fair way to describe this film is a good story with fantastic fight scenes (you dont get the great suttle bits as in fight club until you see it again) I can see how you could be let down by the pauses in the action but this is story and atmosphere.
Great movie 8/10

Funny that you mention the pauses...

For me, The Matrix pretty much ground to a halt in the middle act of the film because it had so much exposition to cover before the pay-off in the final act. Equilibrium also falls prey to that similar sin, but I didn't feel bored because there was real character development going at the same time.

FYI, Equilibrium comes out on DVD May 13th.

Equilibrium was released in Britain on DVD and Video today. I have to say I extremely enjoyed it. I thought Gun-kata was a great concept.

With regard to similarities to the matrix. I don't agree. The rebels in the matrix have the ability to focus within the matrix which gives them the power to fight with high levels of skill. With Equilibrium The Clerics work within the real world depending on their Gun-Kata martial art.

I totally agree, I love this movie! Apart form the Cleric's clothes and the overall "freedom of choice" theme I thought it was knob-all like The Matrix. I think that's a lazy way to look at it, Equilibrium was just as original as the first Matrix movie was and in a lot of ways I prefer it. Cleric John Preston would hand Neo's ass to him!

I rented Equilibrium (on DVD) for lack of anything better to rent. I was at my "last resort rent anything stage." I remembered seeing a preview of Equilibrium on a prior rental. The preview didn't reveal much (about Gun-Kata) but it did look like a good quality movie.

I just stumbled over it while thumbing through the possible last resort selections. I remembed the title. Ahhh...this looks like a good few hours to waste!

I started off watching the tube out of one eye and the computer out of the other. That was...until I saw the first Gun-Kata scene. Wow! The movie had my total complete undivided attention after that.

Gun-Kata seemed like the deadliest concept of martial arts ever developed. I think I've seen practically every other style by now. I wondered why this was the first I'd ever heard of it!? I was trying to figure out the style the group of students was practicing (dancing a simultaneous kata). Oh! They must have been learning Gun-Kata!

Just (only recently) made up? Now, THAT would be a martial arts worth learning!

I would like to congratulate the Director\writer Kurt Wimmer on a absolutely mind blowing, and absolute inspirational film. I was nailed to the couch and I thought that this was it, this was the movie of the deacde,century, lifetime... take your pick.... I would love to learn what you have created, Gun Kata... I think no I know that is what I was dreaming of and waneted to have all my life. Something that puts yourself in a class that cant be matched. If anyone has any information on Gun Kata and can maybe give me a scoop or information on how to obtain this wonderful art. Pls. mail me or contact me on +27723554090 South Africa. ONCE AGAIN Mr.Kurt Wimmer . I take my hat of to you sir for a job well done.

Don't misunderstand me if I critique this film a bit. While I thought the the script was well written, its characters believable, and(of course) the fight scenes blew me away, certain flaws could be seen that beg to be corrected.
Item 1: The gun switch-off:How could Preston simply switch weapons with Brandt and make it look as though Brandt had killed the sweeper team? Forgetting the fact that Preston's name is embossed on his weapon, what puzzled me was that when Brandt arrests Preston, the forensic computer at his trial fingered Brandt as the perpetrator. If the computer is capable of tracking and determining when and who used a particular weapon during a crime, Preston was the last person to use that weapon at that time. Trading his gun with Brandt wouldn't have corrected(or deleted) that action.
Item 2: The Grand Scheme: Father explains that Preston was his unwitting pawn to ferret out the Resistence. If that were so, he and others would have had a hand in making Preston skip his dose. Because Preston accidentally dropped and purposely discontinued his dose without anyone's help, that would be a divine error.
Item 3: "Not without incident": Father needed a "feeling" agent to infiltrate the Resistence who would be disposed of once the Resistence was captured. Of all the agents he could have chosen, WHY WHY WHY send the highest-ranking elite Cleric(who also happens to be the finest Gun-kata master in the monastery)into an emotional tailspin where his training and skills would be brought to bear against the very government that betrayed him? IS DUPONT SUICIDAL?
Anyway, I will continue to enjoy this movie and many more that Kurt Wimmer directs.

its a movie , thats why
every movie has mistakes or tipical "Movie" thing's

anny way's equilibrium is a very good movie , it rox my sox

In response to the above critiques:

1) The computer didn't track who was using the gun, I believe, but simply which gun had been used. Anyone with a layman's knowlege of forensic ballistics knows that ballistic testing is capable of telling which gun fired a bullet (usually using the scratch marks affected by the barrel on the bullet. While technology has obviously advanced from the present to the time of the film, scratch testing would still likely be the easiest method of ballistic testing. The Clerics likely have all their guns indexed for such tests, since a control such as this would fit into the framework of such a paranoid government. Another option is that the guns are set up like those in Judge Dredd, where each bullet is imprinted (magnetically marked, etched, etc.) at the point of firing by the weapon used, therefore allowing the computer to tell immediately upon 'looking' at the bullet who fired it (or, in this case, who's gun). The fact that Preston's name is printed on his gun is pretty much immaterial for this reason: how often do you think Brandt would have looked at his gun that carefully? Remember in the Shawshank Redemption, when the main character steal the warden's shoes? Same principle. Once you're used to something, you rarely look at it.

2) This is a personal belief, but I think that what happened was not that Preston was chosen as the pawn and then somehow made to skip a dose, but instead that he skipped a dose, and Father knew this somehow. It's not at all unlikely that Father has some secret method of telling when someone has skipped doses, since this would immediately allow him to detect possible traitors. From the beginning of the movie, we can tell that clerics do indeed fall occasionally, so Father likely simply waited for an opportune moment when a suitably talented cleric would skip doses.

3) (this'll be the longest) The reason Preston would have been used (assuming that my above solution to question 2 is valid) is either that he is simply the only cleric who has been skipping doses (or perhaps there were more, but Preston was made a better candidate for planting for reasons explained below). If you disagree with my answer to #2 (or assume that there are more than 1 cleric who's missed doses at any given time), then think of it as this: the incredulity you express for this plot point is directly comperable to the surprise which the people in the underground would have felt had they been told that Preston was a double-agent. Who would be less likely to fall than the lead cleric? And, if he did fall, this would be so surprising to the underground that they likely wouldn't even think of a double-cross, since it was so unlikely that Preston would have fallen in the first place. The fact Father likely assumed (probably out of pure arrogance) that Preston was no real threat to him personally, and so there would be little danger to his (Father's) person. Remember, the only reason Preston ever got to Father was because he sneaked guns into the meeting near the end of the film. Father almost certainly didn't see that coming.

Appologies if I've missed anything, it's been a while since I've watched the film, and some minutae may have skipped my mind.

-ob5idian

I just got Equilibrium a few days ago and, I have to admit, it was nothing like how the magazines saw it.

Talking back also, in my opinion, "Father" was already psyching Preston up for the task - remember the baiting of his wife's execution at the beginning? Telling him that he almost slipped, why do you think he said that - this was to lead up to his Master plan.

Since he had tried this before, he had worked out the ultimate plan: he needed a cleric, not just any cleric, a cleric who's calling was fanatical but flawed. Like Preston. Slowly, over time, he will manage to link him with others that worked for him and then maybe engineer tests of his integrity (I wonder if Sean Bean's character was selected by Father as well?) it was all waiting for the fall.

Firstly, he knew Preston was viable - someone who felt but didn't know why - secondly, he knew he would make mistakes, like in the Nether, and then push it so that he would sympathise with the Resistance. Thirdly, the most important part was that he had an ambitious cleric wannabe on his side to act as an instigator.

What "Father" probably didn't expect was that Preston fell in love with Mary - as the leader would say something that could only be satisfied by folding himself within her - and that gave him pain. (As seen after the combustion.)

Gun-Kata: Ha ha, very cute but two words: sniper rifle. Note them seperate or together and you see a flaw in the gun kata. However, it does look like kick ass perfection and, if the Uk had clerics like that, it would be quite cool. I prefered the sword fights - they looked feasible. Also, in my opinion, gun kata looks a lot like the moves in the Sound Of Music dance between the Captain and the Maria. LOL

this is one of the most original movies i have ever seen. i beleave allot of thought went into the plot, and even more importantly into the meaning and the simbolism of the movie.

to many movies rely on there action. even the ones that have a good plot, you can tell that the plot and the meaning was built arround the action, but with this movie, the action is just a complimentery part that happens to come allong with the plot and meaning.

i was surprised actually that there werent people bashing this movie for being a "matrix ripoff", because we know that there are allot of idiots out there. the only thing i think this movie has in common with the matrix actually has nothing to do the film, it is the fact that both films were good because they were not popular (atleast apon release in the theaters) and neather were designed to be big hits (not counting the seccond matrix)

the best part of this movie in my oppinion though, is that it is so obviosly an art film (and OMG it doesnt SUCK). im in my JR. year at an arts acadamy, and i must say, ive gone through this movie over and over again, waching it frame by frame, simply to look at the composition. its as if he considered every frame as a picture and planned the compsition.

all in all, this is just a great movie, weather you like art films, films with meaning and simbolism, or weather you just like some good action

ob5idian,
You give very lucid explanations to the questions that I posed in my last entry. In that respect, I consider you an intelligent person to communicate with. Your explanations, though, had already crossed my mind as possible solutions, but still leave gaps that need filling in. Brandt does request that the Council "check the trace record on his sidearm" to verify that that Preston killed the sweepers in the Nether. It is true that modern ballistics testing would narrow down who's gun was used in the crime, however the "trace record" is supposed to indicate who used the weapon at that time. At what point did Preston alter the "trace record" to incriminate Brandt? I would think such records, in a paranoid society, to be not only inaccessible but unalterable.

Your solution to my my second question sounds entirely possible so I'll postpone further debate for another time.

In my final question, you may be correct in believing that Father was too arrogant to think Preston was a threat. But since DuPont himself stated that a gun-kata master was "an aggressor not to be taken lightly", why would he believe that his grunt soldiers could take down an elite killing machine like Preston. He knows what Clerics are capable of. Also, Preston did not exactly "sneak" guns in with him. The ejection holsters up his sleeves are part the Cleric's arsenal-Preston had them, Brandt had them, (more than likely)Cleric Partridge had them. Wimmer stated in his commentary that his sidearms would have been confiscated before entering the corridor that lead to DuPont's office because the metal detectors would indicate that he was armed. He was to be tested and then asked to hand over his guns before being escorted to "Father's" office.

Father knew loads about the whole thing, the way dupont quotes that yeats line. u step on my dreams etc... just like sean beans character at the start. He must have known him to quote that and must have been trying to use him. But then he talks to preston winding him up about missing his wife so he would catch sean beans character. Father did this A) because sean's character was not playing like a the pawn he wanted and now simply wanted him dead. B)Preston because he would play more ball i.e not just secretly reading books -- but activily contacting the resistance.

Crazy.