Equilibrium

When I'm bored any evening, I watch second rate action films on Netflix.

Tonight's fare was Equilibrium. I was drawn into this 1984-esque film by the casting choice of Christian Bale as the lead role. Christian Bale is a favorite of mine. He steals the show of any movie he's in, whether it be when he dons the rubber Bat-suit, or sharpens his butchering knife before his next reservation at Dorsia. I love most of every movie that he's ever starred in.

However, this is not one of them.

To sum things up, Equilibrium is a story that's set in a dystopian future, where feeling is outlawed. Christian Bale plays the lead character of Preston, a cleric set forth by the Tetragrammaton to make sure that feeling stays outlawed. After he brings death of his partner, played by Sean Bean, for starting to feel again by observing and reading culture from the past, Preston begins to start having thoughts about what he does and begins to find it wrong. This is particularly moved by Preston's love interest, Mary, played by Emily Watson, an apprehended sense offender. As time goes on, Preston starts to go further and further against the established order, eventually sparking a revolution.

The concept is great, right? Upsetting the established order, resentment against conformation, audiences usually suck that stuff up...just look at how much attention the Hunger Games gets. But, Equilibrium just fails because of how rushed it feels. The first scene is a bust of sense offenders headed by our main character, and it's revealed that they've been hoarding priceless paintings from all around the world. Not even what feels like five minutes later, Preston is killing his partner. And then about twenty minutes later, he's apprehending Mary and resisting the urge to kill her on spot. It isn't until the last hour of the movie where things slow down and the plot seems to come into play. Bale's badassery during the fight scenes could draw in action fans, but there's too much conflict going on within the character that those fans would likely find another movie to watch.

I'd have to say this movie's biggest downfall is the waste of Sean Bean. When I saw Bean walk into the building at the beginning, I was ecstatic. Bean has played many of my favorite characters over the years, my favorite of his being Alec Trevelyan in the James Bond adventure Goldeneye, so naturally, I was looking forward to this pairing. But after I saw he had died...I felt heavily let down. You don't cast big names like that just to be wasted after five minutes.

I have to say I had hope and faith for this movie, but it let me down. The premise was good, the cast choices were good, and the set was brilliant. But, the execution needs more work.

2 out of 5 stars