This was decent movie exploring a world where emotions are banned. The two leads have a great chemistry, Hoult does good in this though Stewart really explores her character nicely and comes out the more matured actor of the two. The supporting cast of Pearce and Weaver aren't given much here but they make good use of their small screen time. The Romeo-Juliet type of ending doesn't give you the expected ending instead I would have seem them explore the world outside captivity. I also didn't why is everyone hissing instead of saying the dialogue's out loud, didn't make it more serious in tone anyways. While the overall movie felt repetitive its a good time exploring this world with the different situations these two leads are put into.

6/10

Hissing?

Maybe not the right word but they speak very softly and not the parts where they are hiding from rest of the world. The computers talk louder than humans in most of the movie.

In the future, after a great war has destroyed much of earth's land and population, people live highly regimented lives as part of the Collective. Everyone has a pragmatic purpose. Emotions are regulated and subdued. Love is outlawed. Those who experience anguish, desire, or any intense sentiment are diagnosed with S.O.S. (Switched On Syndrome) and either medicated or imprisoned. So illustrator Silas (Nicholas Hoult) faces enormous peril when he begins to feel, particularly after he develops a romantic interest in another S.O.S.-afflicted colleague (Kristen Stewart). Equals presents an old-fashioned and never entirely convincing vision of the future. Surveillance and policing are oddly light considering the totalitarian nature of this fictional society. And I am not sure anyone in the 21st century still fears a narcotized dystopia where everyone wears white and marches in a neat line so much as the opposite: a chaotic and divided world torn asunder as insatiable excess clashes with inevitable scarcity. So this film falls short as science fiction. Its footing is slightly surer as a romance: it is never incredibly involving or wrenching, but hyper-photogenic leads Hoult and Stewart deliver sensitive performances, and a few scenes generate genuine erotic heat via subtle glances and touches. Also impressive is the chic, reflective, blue-on-white production design: in this future, love and the poetry of life may be forbidden, but at least every citizen cog is guaranteed an awesome apartment.

C+

This movie is almost an art-house approximation of a YA adaptation. A film for people who want to see Divergent or The Hunger Games, but with a slow tempo and an ambiguous air of "taste." The young lovers who are special butterflies amid a society which does not understand their love. The franchise-friendly lingo: "the Collective," "the Peninsula," "hiders," etc.

I enjoyed it. It was nothing new but it was visually really beautiful, and I thought both Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart were great and had fantastic chemistry. I've never been a Stewart fan but she was really great in both this and Cafe Society this year - may have to rethink my stance on her. B

It is funny how much this basically resembles a YA dystopian movie though. I could have even seen it getting a wide release (granted general audiences would hate it, but they could have marketed it as a bigger scale movie than it actually is).