Equilibrium
               
Director: Kurt Wimmer
Year: 2002
Rating: 7.0
This film died a quick death when it came out at the box office under an avalanche of bad reviews. Twenty-years later it has gained some traction and a large fan base and is often considered a big influence on John Wick. I don't know if this is true as it came fourteen years before Wick, but the action certainly could have done so. And there is a dog that plays a central role in the film. It doesn't really matter, I guess. This film hits cool with a hammer. Every part of it from the set designs to the outfits, the architecture (Berlin), the gun play and the sci-fi pretensions. Director Kurt Wimmer keeps it lean and mean spending only a minute upfront to explain the world we are about to enter. There has been a third World War that has nearly wiped-out mankind - and to make sure this never happens again, the inhabitants of Libria are forced to take a daily injection of a drug that inhibits all emotions. Love, hate, jealousy and a desire for chocolate are gone. A world where everyone just goes about doing their job. Of course, there are always the whiners who think emotions are a good thing. Who want to feel. Happiness, sadness, loneliness. Anything as long as you are feeling something.



These people are of course dangerous. Aren't we better off without emotions? You get married, have children but feel nothing towards them. They are units valuable to society. A police force is necessary to keep these people in line. By killing them - incinerating them.  It is for the good of society. All they have to do is take an injection every day. Is that asking so much? The best of the police reach the rank of Cleric - the ones who don't even show emotion when their wives are hauled away and executed for displaying emotion. Crying is a crime and a sure giveaway that you are not taking your drug. Maybe I could finally watch The Best Years of Our Lives without tearing up when March comes home to Myrna Loy. The top Cleric is John Preston (Christian Bale) who even kills his partner when he finds him reading Keats. Can you blame him? Keats?



But then one day Preston breaks his drug capsule and skips it for a day. And has dreams. And begins to feel things. Beethoven's Ninth makes him weep - that I understand - and he can't kill a puppy. How hard can that be. Just ask Kristi Noem. He has to hide those emotions, but it feels good to feel. Freedom. Liberation. And one taste of freedom turns him into a freedom fighter. And in some wizardly action scenarios he kills them by the dozens with Gun Kata - a unique martial skill that allows one to dodge bullets and shoot everyone while doing it. Of course, Chow Yun-fat was doing that years before, but this was an American film and it felt new and fresh. Wimmer went on to make Ultraviolet after this - another sci-fi film just as pretentious and cool looking. I think it is pretty good, most others would disagree. In this also are Sean Bean, Taye Diggs and Emily Watson. The main problem with this film is that it feels like you have taken a shot of the drug because on an emotional level none of this hits home except for the cool factor.