MovieChat Forums > Equals (2016) Discussion > Didn't need 100 minutes for this story

Didn't need 100 minutes for this story

posted 9 years ago by hexrei
3 replies | jump to latest

My main feeling was that this could have been told in half the time given the very minimal story and exposition that occurs. There are only a handful of primary plot points, and this film had almost no action or subplots to eat up the intervening moments so there is a lot of standing around and looking at pretty stuff to fill screen time. Some might appreciate the aesthetic but I thought this film would not lose a lot of import if had been shot as a 40 minute short.

What a lovely way to burn...

[–] dariondanjou 8 years ago

****.SPOILERS ****

I have to agree the story was simplistic but beautiful flip on Romeo and Juliet, but could have done more with the security aspect to beef up the tension. there's a weird mismatch between people letting him go whenever caught, out of "kindness" and the tension of getting caught which was supposedly driving us to the escape point. all the people watching everyone, but it never really amounted to anything. In the end they weren't caught at all by any of their prying colleagues but by her own pregnancy. So yeh, more with the prying eyes and security aspect as a true threat, would have brought it up to Gattaca level, as it looked as good if not better than Gattaca

[–] mmitchell355-2 8 years ago

For people with no emotions, the women at Atmos were sure watching Silas and Nia every move. They were certainly nosy. I thought one of them would figure out what Silas and Nia were doing. And it didn't make sense to me, that their boss suspected, but did not report them. Perhaps because he suspected but did not actually see them together, he did not act.

You are right people should have reported Silas, he asked more than one person about Nia's disappearance and no one turned him in. Maybe it was not out of kindness, maybe the lack of emotions had something to do with it. It might be why public service announcements were made all day to turn SOS people in. The lack of emotions meant people did not care enough, unless it was very apparent.

[–] saturnjwl 8 years ago

I agree. You can tell right away when a film is going to waste a lot of time on long, pretty shots. This movie was a major offender in that regard, but still watchable.

The film was also guilty of using taciturn characters in order to minimize the need to write dialogue, and featured a lot of trope-heavy plot elements. None of this is too surprising, considering its part of the "light-effects, heavy concept" scifi subgenre.

I try to watch all the scifi that comes out, and, for some reason, it's common for films in this subgenre to be more concerned with the concept than with the actual story. This is still a watchable film, though. I like Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult.