In a futuristic world, a strict regime has eliminated war by suppressing emotions: books, art and music and genuinely showing you care for anyone are now strictly forbidden and ‘feeling’ is a crime punishable by death. Cleric John Preston (Christian Bale) is a top ranking government agent responsible for finding and destroying those who resist these rules. When he misses a dose of his Prozium, a government-issue mind-altering drug that hinders emotion and yet another rule to be adhered to, Preston, suddenly becomes the only person capable of overthrowing it and moreover, believes that it needs to be overthrown.
Equilibrium is another of those movies that I sort of stumbled across, I was actually on a Japanese Airlines flight to Sydney, Australia when I saw this and I loved it so much, I pretty much alternated between this and Spiderman (Sam Raimi version, not one of the 14 re-incarnations since) for the duration of the 23 hour flight. This movie is basically a high-concept combination of Fahrenheit 451, Orwell’s 1984 and more noticeably to the generic audience, The Matrix, which in part I feel is responsible for the lukewarm reception this movie received, as the buzz around the fact that Reloaded and Revolutions were soon to be in cinemas were all anyone could talk about. Ironically, this was by far a much better movie than both of those.
On its surface, after a brief action-oriented beginning, Equilibrium is basically a progression from a fairly complex sci-fi film to a thriller-styled action movie. Sure, there is plenty of exposition to get up to speed on the concept but I can assure you it is all worthwhile and necessary and it isn’t anywhere near as maze-like in comparison to the ‘theory of causality’ in The Matrix Reloaded.
The action sequences in this movie or ‘gun-karta’ as it known, are for me, brilliant and had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. I can honestly say, at times what I was watching was more impressive than some of the stuff seen in The Matrix and I loved The Matrix, the only downside being that there wasn’t more action but give credit to director Kurt Wimmer as he maybe didn’t want to fall into the same trap as The Matrix Reloaded and over-do the action to the point where it negates the need for a cohesive story.
All in all, this movie has beautifully choreographed, but still raw looking fight sequences and this is supplemented by fantastic acting by Christian Bale, who is ably supported by Emily Watson, Taye Diggs, Sean Bean to name a few. Whether you love action or a great story-line, this movie delivers on both counts and if you have just watched The Matrix and want more, don’t reach for the sequels (unless you are scene-selecting) – instead, stick this on, you will not be disappointed.