A former co-worker used to run this movie for his students late in the school year for…some reason I don’t recall. He taught dystopian literature, and I suppose he figured Equilibrium fit the bill for what he was doing. I never got to see the whole thing, but I did see bits and pieces of it. I was not particularly intrigued at the time, so I never asked to borrow it. I’m sure my friend and colleague would have been glad to let me take a look at it when he wasn’t using it in the classroom.
As it is, Netflix has it for maybe the next day or so, so I figured I might as well finally see if it was worth my personal time.
Some time after a devastating World War III, late in the 21st century, humanity has come up with a solution to the problem of war: emotions. All people are required to take medication to dull their feelings, and those who don’t are hunted down by the Clerics, a form of law enforcement who practice both a gun-based martial art and what is basically marshal law. Works of art and literature are routinely destroyed, and the whole thing looked like someone mixed HBO’s version of Fahrenheit 451 with the aesthetic style of The Matrix. However, top Cleric John Preston (Christian Bale) accidentally dropped his drug vial and begins to feel. He’s enjoying the sight of rain, smells, and even saves the life of a puppy.
Yes, this society destroys dogs because they don’t see the use of them. That’s a sure sign of evil.
With his newfound feelings, can Preston not only stay alive but also perhaps topple this government and allow people to feel again before his ambitious new partner Brandt (Taye Diggs) can suss out what’s going on?
Quite frankly, this movie was, at best, silly. Preston has to fake lacking emotions, but he’s not very good at it. I know there’s an in-story reason as to why he wasn’t found out sooner, but it still seemed a bit ridiculous that no one was on to him almost immediately. For a viscous futuristic police state, they don’t seem to be good at monitoring everything. The rebel group in the area called the Nethers isn’t exactly a small thing. Meanwhile, Sean Bean shows up to die in the first twenty minutes, and the mysterious “Father” keeps issuing orders over various screens and monitors scattered everywhere.
As such, this is the sort of movie that thinks it has a cool idea, but can’t quite stick the landing. The gun-fu (called “gun kata”) looks rather silly in places as Bale and his final opponent just keep knocking their guns away without disarming each other for a good minute or so. Much of this movie seems to want to just look cool but didn’t put much thought into the movie beyond that. The cast is overqualified, especially Bale, and I found it to be not a horrible viewing experience, but likewise, not something I would go out of my way to recommend.
That said, it was a cute puppy.
Grade: C+
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