Equilibrium

Equilibrium is a surprisingly powerful sci-fi disutopia film that has enough action to keep the cynical and dreary plot police in the audience from dissecting the message ad infinitum. It works as a cross between Farenheight 451, 1984, and something violent with Jet Li, and possibly a Sam Peckenpah directed gunfight. The story, as most disutopian tales do, plays on the stark contrast of the beauty in everything, especially the natural against the concrete and emotionless enslavement our world must surely one day embrace. These films for the most part deliver a protagonist who is the only one who seems to understand the truth behind the lies, and although he may not be able to reveal the ‘man behind the curtain’ as these films tend to operate on a premise of the often faceless demi-god arbitrating right and wrong for society; Equilibrium differs in its scope, while possibly lessening its message, by providing a hero for us that CAN actually make a difference in his world.

The story follows John Preston a Grammaton Cleric, basically a cop working for the thought police. His job is to destroy all art, and bueaty. Why prey tell? Well, in this future emotion has been outlawed, meaning that anything of artistic value, anything that might evoke emotion is dangerous. And how on Earth does mankind depress his natural impulse to feel? Why with regular doses of hard drugs. The ‘soma’ of Equilibrium is called Prozium, and when John Preston stops taking his dosage he begins to see his world for what it has really become. His conscience begins to eat away at him with the destruction of such beauty, and the murder of all resistors. Preston’s eyes are open and something must be done.

Other than the rather far fetched premise that man would ever ban emotion, this is a very good story. Just suspend your disbelief for a while and the film just sucks you right in. It’s a pretty good idea, that as I mentioned above differs a fair bit from the more traditional disutopian film. The film is very watchable and avoids the depressing pitfalls that most film of this genre suffer from.

This film has some of the most spectacular gun fights I’ve ever seen. The gun work is a unique combination of marksmanship and martial arts. They call it the Gunkata in the movie, and it looks amazing on film. The premise maybe a bit silly, by statistical analysis they determined the most appropriate body positions to inflict maximum damage at minimal cost. Regardless of reality though the gunfights work very well. I was simply blown away by the action and recommend this film on their strength alone. I’m not sure who designed it but the stunt coordinator, the effects guys, the cinematographer, and the editor really did a great job with these scenes. The other stuff wasn’t bad by any means, but it was what I expected. Some really beautiful images made it into the film and I really enjoyed the tone as a whole. A very effective look on all fronts.

The film stars Christian Bale and as always he is very good. Bale continually delivers solid work even in films that are not so strong themselves. I’m not sure if this film was released wide in America, but its really about time Bale started getting the respect I think he deserves. Anyways, he’s very good here, and a fun believable casting. The other actors are good, and somewhat recognizable on a second tier level but they didn’t stand out as much as Bale. Then again the movie really revolves and focuses on him very strongly.

The film was directed by Kurt Wimmer, an up and coming director of such other recent cool flicks as The Recruit, The Tomas Crown Affair, and the upcoming Ultraviolet. He did a very good job with this small film. Well, maybe it isn’t so small, but it feels that way. The action is contained, there aren’t any huge stars, I believe they filmed in Germany, and the money that went into effects was well spent and not overused. I liked how he pulled this film together, and kept the focus. The film worked well, and I think we can expect some good things from this guy in the future.

I was surprised to enjoy this film so much. But maybe what surprises me more is that I’d never heard of it before I saw it, this is a cool little film that people ought to check out. It has great action, a solid story and some great visuals. Equilibrium is well worth the investment.