Thursday 27 March 2014

Equilibrium

I watched Equilibrium last night. Equilibrium stars Christian Bale and was released in 2002 to widespread critical condemnation. The movie takes place in a post-apocalyptic world ruled by a fascist dictatorship. In an effort to prevent war everybody is forced to take a drug called Prozim that eliminates all emotion. This premise is basically an excuse for ultraviolent gunfights with a pinch of Kung Fu. However Equilibrium has a number of important messages - it is much deeper than your usual action movie. The violence is intimately connected to the message being delivered.

People don’t seem to like or understand movies that work on multiple levels. Starship Troopers is another example of this. This movie was an adaption of Robert Heinlein’s book of the same name. Unlike most adaptions it ridicules the source material delivering a completely opposite message than the book intended. It criticises commercialism, propaganda and fascism while masquerading as a brainless science-fiction action movie.

Another, one of my favourite movies that falls into this category is Hudson Hawk. This movie mushes together several genres: musical, comedy, action, adventure and crime. It has the most amusing bad guys you will ever see. It’s a great movie, one that I judge the quality of someone’s character by. If you like this movie, I like you.

I don’t really understand why these films are so underappreciated. I don’t think people like movies that forced them to think or deliver the unexpected. They just wish to sit in the cinema turn their brain off and munch popcorn. Sad really.

No comments:

Post a Comment

hizzer