Equilibrium

Equilibrium - ****

Kurt Wimmer's second directorial feature Equilibrium was lost in the post-9/11 shuffle of the movie industry that looked to make more heartwarming and uplifting epics rather than slick dark action pictures. And in their defence, there isn't too much in this movie that breaks the mold. It's kind of Fahrenheit 451 meets The Matrix meets The Giver on crack. The same old questions of personal freedoms are asked, and like The Giver, the emphasis on emotions is present. What makes the film work is spectacle, mainly the marvelous spectacle of realising that a film like this could have been made for roughly $20 million. The performances are sufficient, I guess, because the characters are underwritten in favour of the almighty action sequence, but with this film it works flawlessly. I felt drawn into the plight of the lead character John Preston (Christian Bale) because instead of focusing on human melodrama, Wimmer allows the circumstances to speak for themselves, and once such a reality is presented it is only natural to cheer for the protagonist. Purposeful underwriting allow an emphasis on the spectacle, and it pays off in spades for this film. Thumbs up.