Review of Equilibrium (2002) by Ben L — 06 Apr 2016

Equilibrium is a film about a post-World War 3 society that has decided the impetus for all wars has been emotion, so in order to avoid the destruction of humanity everyone is forced to take medicine that deadens all emotion. This is enforced by a group of clerics who arrest/kill anyone who feels, and destroy all forms of art. The cast of this film is spectacular. Christian Bale is the star and has a huge arc that he must experience in the movie from start to finish. I don't blame him for some of the issues I had with his character, because I think it was in the writing, but the quantity of "feeling" he does in front of other clerics was off the charts and obvious. It made sense for his character and it was effective emotionally, but the lack of reaction from others when they saw his breakdown broke the logic of the movie. I would have liked a lot more subtlety to his transition, make most of it internal and we only see tiny clues in how his behavior changes. Sean Bean doesn't have a huge role, but he's amazing in his few scenes. I kind of wish he had been a bigger part of the story. In fact, despite my issues with the film (which I will expound upon in a moment) I could probably go through the entire cast and have very few complaints, because they all did well with what they were given.

The reason I didn't fall in love with this film is some of the execution of what sounded like a brilliant idea. The concept of removing the very thing that makes us human was fascinating, and the journey of a man who has never experienced emotions slowly discovering them was also a very promising idea. The problem is that, while the world they built was interesting, the story within that world was shoddy. His transition is too dramatic and too fast. It made no sense for him to get away with so much emotion, and other crimes against his fellow law enforcement officers. The conclusion was so poorly done it kind of spoiled everything that came before. The way they jumped from one scene to the next was awful, and the constant reveals of supposed plot twists was horrendous. It's like every five minutes they expect the audience to be gasping with shock, but none of it is all that surprising, and you quickly grow numb to the twists and turns they waited until the end to reveal. The fighting style in the entire film was visually entertaining. It can get a bit overly choreographed and almost comically staged, but I didn't really mind that much. Those action scenes felt very Matrix-like and I enjoyed it. However, I never understood why Bale dominated everyone, including other clerics who were trained the same as him. I realize one of the big reveals at the end tries to justify why Bale's character got away with so much, but it was a bit too convenient and didn't convince me.