Equilibrium

Now here's a problem. This is a sci-fi film with a great premise -- citizens of the world are given a mood-altering drug so that there's no more murder and no more war, but one man stops taking his drug and starts to feel highs and lows again. (Did I mention yet that it stars Christian Bale and he takes his shirt off more than once?) It has the feel of many other sci-fi films including 1984, Fahrenheit 451 and The Matrix. The hallway gun battles in The Matrix and this film are nearly exactly the same except in this film the main character's costume is white instead of black. It has some wonderfully subtle acting in it, which is saying a lot for an action film. Christian Bale is particularly good as the man who stops taking the drug. (Too bad he's also such a babe, it makes it that much harder to rate this film. "Christian Bale is in it? I'll give it a 5.5. Definitely.") It has what I considered a very unique fight scene at the end based on a martial art called Gun Kata in which the gun is an extension of your hand and you can anticipate your opponent's moves. (Actually, Gun Kata is used in numerous interestingly filmed sequences with Bale blowing away his opponents. Did Bale bulk up for this role or was I just watching too closely?) But somehow the film didn't quite make the grade. I'm guessing it's because I saw it too close to seeing The Matrix Reloaded and my brain synapses are overloaded with martial arts fight sequences and moralizing tales. (Besides, we get nary a smooch between Bale and his awesome co-star Emily Watson.) Time to move on now...

year: 2002
length: 107 min.
rating: 3.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238380/combined