EquilibriumMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 33 out of 100 Generally unfavorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
15 Iffy for 15+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    Would be a mindless action picture, except that it has a mind. It doesn't do a lot of deep thinking, but unlike many futuristic combos of sf and f/x, it does make a statement: Read full review

  • 63
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    The martial-arts sequences take this prosaic thriller to a higher level. Read full review

  • 50
    Washington Post | Michael O'Sullivan

    Just because it's a good idea doesn't mean it's easy to do well. Screenwriter-turned-director Kurt Wimmer has a hard time keeping his actors from, well, acting a lot of the time. Read full review

  • 50
    New York Daily News | Jami Bernard

    Mostly plays like a routine thriller with a classy cast. Read full review

  • 38
    Boston Globe | Ty Burr

    Equilibrium just happens to be a really bad comic book. Read full review

  • 30
    Los Angeles Times | Manohla Dargis

    An accidental entertainment, Equilibrium is a science-fiction pastiche so lacking in originality that if you stripped away its inspirations there would be precious little left. Read full review

  • 25
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    Super- violent, super-serious and super-stupid. Read full review

  • 20
    Variety | Dennis Harvey

    Misses with its blowhard treatment of a silly, obvious script. Results might hazard "Battlefield Earth" comparison if new pic were a tad more fun. Read full review

  • 10
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    Equilibrium is like a remake of "1984" by someone who's seen "The Matrix" 25 times while eating Twinkies and doing methamphetamines. Read full review

  • 0
    The New York Times | Elvis Mitchell

    If someone left "1984," "Fahrenheit 451," "Brave New World," "Gattaca" and the Sylvester Stallone potboilers "Judge Dredd" and "Demolition Man" out in the sun and threw the runny glop onto a movie screen, it would still be a better picture than Equilibrium, a movie that could be stupider only if it were longer. Read full review

View more reviews for Equilibrium on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 15+ Violent post-nuclear sci-fi is Orwellian.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this film is violent. The opening scenes show a sense police raid, involving much shooting and death. The closing scenes are of greater violence, big explosions and more death. In between there is intermittent violence and death. Despite this, the film isn't unusually violent for this kind of movie, and the deaths aren't gory. Some younger children might be upset by the sense police's arrest and abduction of Preston's wife in front of her young family.
  • Families can talk about how Preston, emotion and beauty win over the dour, controlling Librian state, yet rather than straightforward tales of good over evil, the film leads one to question these opposing concepts. Peace is surely good, but in this case evil derives from an all-consuming quest for peace, which itself breeds violence. Familes can also talk about how the importance of love, loyalty and joy abound in this film, but glory is associated with violence and destruction
What to watch for
  • violence false4 Violence: Violence and peril.
  • sex false0 Sex: Not an issue
  • language false3 Language: Some strong language.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Sci-fi drug use.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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