- Actors: Nicholas Hoult, Kristen Stewart, Bel Powley, Guy Pearce
- Director: Drake Doremus
- Format: NTSC, Widescreen
- Language: English
- Region: Region A/1
- Number of discs: 1
- Rated: PG-13
- Studio: LIONSGATE
- Release Date: September 6, 2016
- Run Time: 93 minutes
It is no wonder
that many critics assumed that this was some type of a remake or re-imagining
of the 1984, because although Drake
Doremus believes that this film comes from his own original idea, it resembles
dozens of other science fiction films. If not 1984, it simply reminded me of Equilibrium
with romance rather than Matrix-style
action, which itself resembled Fahrenheit
451. There were also elements similar to The Giver, The Lobster
(without the humor), and countless other science fiction films. In other words,
as hard as the filmmaking tries to resemble something new and fresh, Equals largely feels like a forgettable
rehashing of familiar science fiction tropes mixed with the melodrama of a
star-crossed lovers narrative.
The familiar futuristic dystopian
society is one with humans that have become separated from their emotions,
drugged from birth to repress them. Some have anomalies which create a
resistance and begin having human emotions again, but they are detained by the
government. This is the setting for a romance between two characters, despite
love being strictly prohibited. Silas (Nicholas Hoult) and Nia (Kristen
Stewart) are employees in a facility that creates endless maps from precise
analytical descriptions of locations outside of the society. Apparently the
maps must be created this way because of a lack of recording devices, though
the reason for this is left unexplained.
This is where the world that Doremus
has created becomes a bit muddled. For a society that values cold and
analytical communications, it is somewhat baffling how pervasive human
interaction is shown to be in the work environment. Email and text messaging
has been replaced by face-to-face conversations and group meetings, despite the
obvious technological advances in the society. By the way, why is it that all
futuristic societies have public broadcasts on large televisions around the
city? We are meant to ignore the inconsistencies and focus on the romance
between the film’s two attractive young leads, but their chemistry is hardly
any more convincing.
The film is beautifully shot and
given an emotive score, but it is often sluggish and monotonous. Fans of Hoult
and Stewart may enjoy the performances, which are admittedly good considered
how little they are given to work with. It seems like Doremus was after the
teens who have just recently matured past their Hunger Games obsession, but preferably ones who didn’t pay
attention enough in school to recognize how much the filmmaker has stolen from “Romeo
and Juliet” in his climactic ending. Ignorance is bliss with this movie, and
Equals is only likely to be fully appreciated by those who are unaware of the
unoriginality and unconcerned with the gaps in logic.
The high definition presentation of
the Blu-ray disc shows off the highly polished dream-like cinematography and
the immaculately sparse production design. Special features on the disc are
highlighted by a commentary track with Doremus, joined by cinematographer John
Guleserian and editor Jonathan Alberts. Also included are three fairly generic
featurettes, and the Blu-ray package comes with a Digital HD copy of the film.
Entertainment Value:
6/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 6/10
Historical
Significance: 3/10
Special Features: 6/10
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