Movie – Equilibrium

In the future, an oppressive government called the Tetragrammaton has outlawed all forms of feeling and stimulants of emotion such as music and literature to avoid a fourth world war. Citizens of Libria are forced to take doses of a sedative called Prozium to suppress emotions. Cleric John Preston (Bale) is a Grammaton Cleric, charged with destroying those that choose not to take their dose. Being the most skilled person in ‘gunkatas,’ Preston becomes the only one capable of dethroning the reclusive Father.

Equilibrium is a fantastic action movie cross between 1984 and The Matrix. It features Christian Bale as Grammaton Cleric John Preston. I’ve seen Bale in plenty of movies but for some reason I never remember him. He suited the role of the feeling-less Cleric and it reminded of what a good actor he really is. Sean Bean featured in the movie as well, although unfortunately his part in the movie is fairly short as his character is quite a good one. Taye Diggs plays a fairly vital role in the film too.

To those that come to this movie looking for action scenes, don’t worry, there are plenty of matrix style fight scenes and some insanely cool gun battles. Some of the effects aren’t as clear or stunning as in the Matrix Reloaded, but the Matrix’s budget was about 7 times bigger than Equilibrium’s. That said the effects and action scenes are still very engaging and impressive to watch.

I found some aspects a bit confusing and lacking in explanation. For about the first quarter of the film I thought people choosing not to take their Prozium doses were ‘scent offenders,’ I pieced that together after a while though. I missed some other little things like that the Tetragrammaton was the government and why the elite law enforcers are called ‘clerics’. Luckily these didn’t impact too much on the movie and it was still fun to watch.

I award this movie with 8.6 stars. It’s a great and exciting film well worth paying for.

Tags: action, Christian Bale, Equilibrium, gun kata, Sean Bean, Taye Diggs