Oscar winner Christian Bale leads this 2002 action sci-fi as a star enforcer for a totalitarian government that makes its citizens take a drug which suppresses emotions. Art, books, music, and any displays of affection are strictly banned. However, when the enforcer misses a dose of his drug, the lingering emotion sends him on a path of revolution and redemption.
Directed by Kurt Wimmer
2002Rating: M, Medium level violence, Low level coarse language107 minsUSA
ActionScience Fiction
Kurt Wimmer ('Ultraviolet')
Kurt Wimmer
Christian BaleTaye DiggsAngus MacfadyenMatthew Harbour
Equilibrium | Reviews
If someone left "1984," "Fahrenheit 451," "Brave New World," "Gattaca" and the Sylvester Stallone potboilers "Judge Dredd" and "Demolition Man" out in the sun and threw the runny glop onto a movie screen, it would still be a better picture than Equilibrium, a movie that could be stupider only if it were longer.
An unsophisticated sci-fi drama that takes itself all too seriously, "Equilibrium" sports a mix of "Matrix"-like chopsocky and cautionary Big Brother-isms ripped directly off the old "Fahrenheit 451," "THX-1138," "Brave New World," et al. block.
Flashy, "MATRIX"-style action sequences trump ideas; it's hard not to feel you've just watched a feature-length video game with some really heavy back story.
"Equilibrium'' would be a mindless action picture, except that it has a mind. It doesn't do a lot of deep thinking, but unlike many futuristic combos of sf and f/x, it does make a statement: Freedom of opinion is a threat to totalitarian systems.
The martial-arts sequences take this prosaic thriller to a higher level.