Equilibrium
Starring Christian Bale, Taye Diggs, Emily Watson
Written and Directed by Kurt Wimmer


If a movie really makes an impact at the box office and with the public, one thing always happens -- it spawns like a million clones and copycats faster than you can say boyband. With Equilibrium it is quite obvious that it got greenlighted purely on the success of The Matrix. This however does not necessarily mean that Equilibrium is a bad film. It surprisingly is quite unique and entertaining in its own way.

To say that the Wachowski brothers are responsible for the newest trends in the sci-fi/action genre would not be wrong, but it wouldn’t be right either. Way before the Wachowskis introduced us to the neo-world of The Matrix, they were studying the hyper-nature of Japanese animation and John Woo. So, with Equilibrium, if you say that it is just another Matrix knock-off in a very long line of Matrix knock-offs, I must correct you on that. It is just another film influenced by other films that tells a fun story. That fun story is that in a Fascist future, after several more World Wars, it has been determined that having feelings and emotions is the primary cause of destruction in the world and that emotions and feelings should be suppressed. So, a drug is introduced and self-injected by people and all those who oppose are to killed, or more specifically, burned in a giant chamber. Of course, being a human means having feelings and being emotional, so naturally there is a rebellion against the regime and one man will rise to lead these rebels to victory. That man is John Preston (Christian Bale, before he saved Gotham City).

John Preston is a head cleric (clerics are in charge of exterminating touchy-feely humans and their belongings) and definitely one bad man. His martial arts and weapons skills are fast, furious, and very “Matrix-like”. He is cold, but not that cold. Years earlier, his wife was executed for refusing to inject and suppress herself, somewhere inside Preston, he still remembers that. After missing a daily injection, Preston starts to feel again and wages a one man war against The Leader. That means lots of guns and lots of people flying around in all directions.

Equilibrium looks a lot like The Matrix, but I give writer/director Kurt Wimmer a lot of credit for trying to expand on what The Matrix built. He tries some new camera tricks and choreography that is definitely fun to watch. The story of a suppressed future is always fascinating to imagine (we all do work for a living) and who doesn’t enjoy a lot of stylized action now and then, brought to us by hip-slick men in black. Equilibrium is not original, but it is unique.


THE RUNDOWN:

The Good: Great action sequences that satisfy the inner “postal worker” in all of us.

The Bad: Looks and sounds a lot like The Matrix.

The Law: Equilibrium is not purely original, but unique enough to watch.