Equals Blu-ray Review
If EQUALS needs another editor, or is already lacking one, I would gladly accept a check that would allow me to point out an extra 20 minutes of mindless staring, unimaginative staring, and unemotional silences between characters that added nothing to this movie. While I’m sure director Drake Doremus wanted the movie, cast, and surroundings speak for themselves, at no point did any of that silence have any meaningful emptiness to say. I found myself wanting to hit stop and eject more than I found myself interested in what would happen next.
EQUALS takes place in an unmentioned time, after a great world war that left the world crippled and without many of the technological amenities we have now, like social media, pop-culture, or anything that could remotely stimulate us. Emotions and feelings have been eliminated methodically from the human populace through scientific breakthroughs, vaccines, and pills. What’s left from this war and feeling eradication is a workforce that’s sole purpose is to wake up, eat, go to work, eat, work more, go home, eat and then sleep.
EQUALS seems to have missed out on the possibility of relaying the message that corporate control could lead to more than just advertisement brainwashing and out-of-control consumerism. Instead EQUALS focuses on how without emotions, bad things happen. And even with emotions, bad things happen in EQUALS. Suicides are on the rise as “Switched on Syndrome”, an obvious S.O.S. pun, infects the workforce. It’s slowly been reintroducing emotion into a soul crushed workforce. Silas (Hoult) doesn’t realize he has it yet, but he begins to notice feelings for another co-worker, although oddly he doesn’t show any signs of remorse or sadness for his dead colleagues.
The other co-worker that he begins to notice is Nia (Stewart). He begins to admire her physical attributes and soon begins to admire her work. He tries to trigger conversations with her that won’t cause suspicions amongst his bosses or colleagues. He soon discovers that she may also be experiencing feelings for him. So they both have S.O.S. and watching them both flirt is like watching two shy middle schoolers trying to navigate their emotions and the dating scene. This makes the sex scene even more awkward. EQUALS doesn’t really have much to say, show, or do.
There’s an underground rebellion that’s trying to open up more people to S.O.S., but we never get a full scope of what the world is actually like or how things work outside of this gray colored world. I have more questions about how an emotionless society finds anything interesting or exciting. Instead of little winks or nods to what this world is like, EQUALS spends most of its time in bed, metaphorically and literally, with Silas and Nia’s blossoming relationship, which I don’t necessarily believe. It’s derivative for people like me who’ve watched plenty of sci-fi’s painting the future with a bleak brush. If gives pause for warning, but EQUALS will most likely make the viewer more misanthropic.
BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: (1080p Widescreen 1:85:1) The sterile and dull nature of the future is captured wonderfully on this blu-ray.
Audio: (English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1) A decent amount of dialogue is mumbling whispers or enthusiastic conversations. Get ready to crank the volume.
Audio Commentary with Director Drake Doremus, Cinematographer John Guleserian and Editor Jonathan Alberts: The background and backstory to this movie is way more interesting than the film itself. The trio of men discusses a wide range of topics, from sets, working with the cast, and themes. It’s crazy how they were more engaging than the movie they created.
Switched on (8:15): This feature has a collection of interviews with crew about what the movie means to them. It also looks at how the creators got the ball rolling nearly half a decade ago on film production.
The Collective (13:35): Interviews with Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult reveal work behind the scenes and how they’re sold on Doremus’ vision. Crew also discuss their behind-the-scenes work and regurgitate stories with the two main characters and their relation with the story.
Utopia (30:11): A very lengthy piece about producing the movie. The one thing that gets brought up and irks me is them talking about the society and world they created; Specifically why everything is void of technology, in terms of smartphones and television. Other than that, they talk a lot about set design and visuals.
Trailers