Don't let The Matrix comparisons to this flick fool you. This movie rocks not only on an action level, which was used to a minimum, btw, and was very effective where it was used, but on a dramatic level.
It is the future after WW3 and Orwellian/fascist themes rule. The Arts and emotions are prohibited and supressed by an injection every day. The world is policed by Gramatron Clerics, persons who excel at non feelings and kill at random those who don't comply in a world where war and murder are non existant.
Do you see the irony?
We open with a flag that resembles a swastika and two Clerics (Christian Bale, Sean Bean) destroying the original Mona Lisa without a blink, the Mona Lisa being hidden by the freedom underground. John Preston (Bale) eventually realizes his partner, who hid and was reading a copy of Yeats, hasn't been taking his injections and murders him in cold blood. Then one day, after years of hunting down 'sense offenders,' Preston accidentally loses his daily injection. When he starts to feel, things begin to turn.
This movie role was made for Bale. If you've seen his perfomance as the non feeling serial killer, in American Psycho, you'll know what I mean. Not only did the director need to find an actor that convinced you he was cold, but the actor also had to convince an audience he was pretending to not feel, yet feel everything. Only Bale could have pulled this off and he does it soaring.
There are disturbing tones in this movie, made more chilling by Bales excellent performance. Preston's wife was 'processed' (exterminated) as a sense offender. When asked how he felt about that, he genuinely is confused and admits he didn't feel about it at all. Of his two children, the son is disturbing when catching his father, as the father accidentally breaks the vial containing his daily injection. The boy goes to great lengths to see that his father has it replaced and there are no emotions as a little boy should have for his father, only a sense of mistrust.
There are moments in the movie that really get to you. Under feelings that he is trying to supress to everyone around him, Preston interrogates a woman from the underground he caught. After confiscating her illegal personals; a vial of perfume, a scented ribbon and a sea shell, Preston finds himself alone with these objects and reconnecting with the things of life that he previously wasn't aware of. It captured the poignancy of a man discovering emotions for the first time, in a very simple way.
Then, Preston finds himself in charge of the sytematic murder of a kennel of dogs and puppies (pets not allowed, of course). You want to talk about heart wrenching. Kill a human, NO big deal. Start killing puppies and you are in for big trouble! The scene is extremely effective.
Preston's fate is to eventually kill Father, the mysterious persona in charge of the world. The story takes on a lot of interesting twists and turns and I won't ruin it for anyone by speaking of them, but rest assured, just when you think you got it figured out (some of it is cliched), there are parts I guarantee you won't guess at.
Oh, yeah the action! The Clerics are trained in a weird and original sort of quasi Samarai with a 45 and hidden arsenal sort of thing. It's actually very impressive and also quite effective and the nice thing is, we don't get overdosed with it. Where it is used is, again, extremely effective. Cheers for the director, Kurt Wimmer, whose chose to have the drama in the fore.
The ending is quite ironic.
Believe it or not... **** stars out of 5
It is the future after WW3 and Orwellian/fascist themes rule. The Arts and emotions are prohibited and supressed by an injection every day. The world is policed by Gramatron Clerics, persons who excel at non feelings and kill at random those who don't comply in a world where war and murder are non existant.
Do you see the irony?
We open with a flag that resembles a swastika and two Clerics (Christian Bale, Sean Bean) destroying the original Mona Lisa without a blink, the Mona Lisa being hidden by the freedom underground. John Preston (Bale) eventually realizes his partner, who hid and was reading a copy of Yeats, hasn't been taking his injections and murders him in cold blood. Then one day, after years of hunting down 'sense offenders,' Preston accidentally loses his daily injection. When he starts to feel, things begin to turn.
This movie role was made for Bale. If you've seen his perfomance as the non feeling serial killer, in American Psycho, you'll know what I mean. Not only did the director need to find an actor that convinced you he was cold, but the actor also had to convince an audience he was pretending to not feel, yet feel everything. Only Bale could have pulled this off and he does it soaring.
There are disturbing tones in this movie, made more chilling by Bales excellent performance. Preston's wife was 'processed' (exterminated) as a sense offender. When asked how he felt about that, he genuinely is confused and admits he didn't feel about it at all. Of his two children, the son is disturbing when catching his father, as the father accidentally breaks the vial containing his daily injection. The boy goes to great lengths to see that his father has it replaced and there are no emotions as a little boy should have for his father, only a sense of mistrust.
There are moments in the movie that really get to you. Under feelings that he is trying to supress to everyone around him, Preston interrogates a woman from the underground he caught. After confiscating her illegal personals; a vial of perfume, a scented ribbon and a sea shell, Preston finds himself alone with these objects and reconnecting with the things of life that he previously wasn't aware of. It captured the poignancy of a man discovering emotions for the first time, in a very simple way.
Then, Preston finds himself in charge of the sytematic murder of a kennel of dogs and puppies (pets not allowed, of course). You want to talk about heart wrenching. Kill a human, NO big deal. Start killing puppies and you are in for big trouble!
The scene is extremely effective. Preston's fate is to eventually kill Father, the mysterious persona in charge of the world. The story takes on a lot of interesting twists and turns and I won't ruin it for anyone by speaking of them, but rest assured, just when you think you got it figured out (some of it is cliched), there are parts I guarantee you won't guess at.
Oh, yeah the action! The Clerics are trained in a weird and original sort of quasi Samarai with a 45 and hidden arsenal sort of thing. It's actually very impressive and also quite effective and the nice thing is, we don't get overdosed with it. Where it is used is, again, extremely effective. Cheers for the director, Kurt Wimmer, whose chose to have the drama in the fore.
The ending is quite ironic.
Believe it or not... **** stars out of 5
