Equilibrium
A dodgy premise passingly well executed, Equilibrium blends elements of emotionless futurism with martial arts and the now overused motif of Matrix-style gravity-defying wirework, but is better than it's type and marketing would suggest.
In a not-too-distant future, a third world war has so traumatised the population of (at least this part of) the planet that a new drug that inhibits emotions (Prozium, would you believe) is mandated for use by all human beings, and anything that could lead to emotion (specifically: art, music and literature) is outlawed, and possession of such items is punishable by death through incineration. To enforce this law, a new enforcement agency, the Grammaton Clerics, are trained in a martial-arts-like combat style that focuses on firearms, and emotionlessly, ruthlessly and implacably eradicate all forms of emotional representation they come across, be it human or the Mona Lisa.
Not a very promising start is it?
But fear not, from this rather lacklustre premise comes a film that, while not "good" by most standards, certainly performs above the expectations set by its own storyline. Let me enumerate the positives, even if they're false negatives...
- The Matrix-style effects are rarely overdone.
- The world it is set in is internally consistent (for the most part), which allows us to immerse ourselves in the film
- The gun-style martial arts (gun-katas, they call it) is actually quite cool, and based on at least a reasonably plausible premise. It also makes for a pretty cool fight scene at the end.
Christian Bale plays the impassive, emotion-deprived hero very well, as his features seem custom-moulded for the task. His approach hails implacable destruction of all who stand against him or are guilty of "Sense Offenses", and the movie sets him up as ruthless and efficient for just long enough that his transformation into someone who actually feels is not totally without interest.
But I can't really come off too positive on this film, because something just doesn't feel right. The main protagonist, as he gradually misses his shots of emotion-dampening compounds, finds himself in situations where his emotions are getting the better of him, and can't seem to control them at all. Admittedly, if you're not used to feeling, it can be hard to deal with, but you'd think someone hardened enough to kill in cold blood without even blinking would be able to hide his emotions a little better than he can during his apparent awakening. To put it more succintly, as he awakens, his inability to fake it simply isn't convincing. Also, as his ability to be implacable fades, this has absolutely no impact on his combat skills, which I would have thought were at least partially dependent on his ability to not feel any fear, anxiety or guilt as to the consequences of his actions and the death he so liberally distributes to all who encounter him in the line of business.
A rare breath of fresh air was a slight (and almost missable, given how underplayed it was) plot twist regarding his son. All too rarely do writers and directors these days underplay good ideas, because there's such a lack of them I guess.
Frankly, I'm sorry to say that once again you should avoid unless you want to see a simple and somewhat internally inconsistent action film, but if your needs are simple, and involve action, and you've seen MI, X-Men and Spiderman already, then this is probably not too bad a gamble.
Equilibrium links at
IMDB, and
Rotten Tomatoes.
Starring
Christian Bale, who also played the lead role (Patrick Bateman) in the movie
American Psycho.
Posted by nlvp at June 2, 2003 01:12 AM