The hype machine in our culture could most adequately be compared to a military tank. It mows over anything in the way of its own agenda, making sure that, whether you ever believe it, you will at least get the message.
I say this because I just watched the movie Equilibrium and it summarily beats any of the three Matrix movies, and the more current Wanted, in every way possible. Somehow, though, this is more of a cult film than it is a mainstream success. It is, in fact, about as far from a success as any movie in history. We're talking box office of just over $1 million. The end credits of this movie cost that, not to mention the stunning gun fight scenes and the fees for getting Christian Bale to be in your movie. Even in 2002 that guy had to have been pulling a good bit of money for roles.
The three Matrix crapfests all easily cleared the $100 million mark, and yet these are bad, maybe even terrible movies. Wanted is certainly not a terrible movie, but it's also by no means special. James McAvoy isn't that interesting of an actor, Angelina Jolie is great eye candy but I've seen Tomb Raider and her character's not that much different in this one and Morgan Freeman is ... well, he's the same dude in almost every movie he's ever taken.
I know I'm late to the game watching Equilibrium, but I'm blown away by the disparity between the movie's quality and its success in the mainstream (or lack of it, rather).
It's that and the fact that I really felt that I needed to post something this week since I've been slacking off of late.
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