Nov 24 2008
B+ Movie Review: Equilibrium
Any action movie that comes out today has a high bar set for it. After the influence of Asian Cinema, which pushed up the standards for what action could be, anything that doesn’t make the viewer twitch in their seat a little or pump their fist in triumph is going to seem flat, even if fifteen years ago it would have been spectacular. If you doubt me, go back and watch any martial arts movie from the 80’s and then compare it to the lamest of Jackie Chan’s pics. Compare Commando against The Matrix for gunplay. You’ll see the difference in what audiences have come to expect.
Once you know how hard it is to make a good action flick, pop in Equilibrium.
The story Equilibrium starts with a crawling bit of text that informs you that mankind has nearly bombed itself into non-existence and concluded from it’s mistakes that the enemy of peace was emotion all along. The totalitarian state that rose up out of the ashes removed that little problem with a powerful mood leveling drug. Take it and you can live out a dull, repetitive life without a care because, well, you can’t care. Dont’, try to feel or look at art or have a pet and you face the enforcers of this grey world, the Grammaton Clerics.
Equilibrium was a film that came from development hell, sojourned in US theatres for a weekend or so, then found it’s devotees when it made to rental racks. It would have been a sadder world if this had never seen the light of day if for no other reason, we would have never been introduced to the fanboy’s wet dream of a martial art: Gunkata.
The clerics are trained in this mythical art, a series of postures and movements designed to make the user hard to hit in gunfights while at the same time raining lead down upon his enemies. And in the process, look damn cool.
A Pre-Batman Christian Bale plays the hero of the film, a cleric who has dutifully served but through the course of the film misses a dose of his drug and begins to question the society he lives in. He has to hide his doubts from those he works with, a task that proves daunting as every senstion is suddenly new and vibrant. Bale does an excellent job with this, conveying a genuine wonder and bewilderment as his character sees the world for the first time with unclouded eyes.
The movie doesn’t pull punches when convincing you the government is evil. If you’re squeamish about the idea of soldiers executing animals, you may want someone to tell you when to close your eyes and when to watch again. The overall feel of the movie is depressing and harsh such that when we do see color or humanity injected into the landscape, even the most commonplace joy seems something worth dying for.
The cracks in the movie come from the fact that other characters, still loyal to the government, show a little too much joy in enforcing the will of the state. There are places that the pace feels a little odd and others where the plot seems a little too tidy. None of this makes the film less enjoyable.
Equilibrium is B+ and then some. If you are a fan of action films, martial arts films or dysotopian future films and you’ve not seen this, watch this movie next. Though I take no responsibility if you then grab a pair of toy pistols and start posing oddly in front of the mirror… don’t be ashamed, we all do it.
