The Equilibrium features some absolutely fantastic action sequences which are breathtaking in their choreography.
The film starts by telling us that early in the 21st century there was a third world war. The survivors agreed that the world couldn’t withstand a fourth and developed a drug called Prozium to end human emotion altogether. Anyone that goes off the dose is considered a ‘sense offender’ and is apprehended and incinerated by the future law enforcement agents of the ‘Tetragrammaton Council’ known as Clerics. Another duty of the clerics is to find and destroy anything that is deemed ‘EC-10′ (contraband) by the council. EC-10 items include music, collectibles, or anything else that can possibly trigger an emotion. Everyone dresses in blacks and whites, everyone lives in the same houses with no decorations, there is no happiness or sadness, there is simply existence.
The action itself is stylized very similarly to The Matrix. But as far as Equilibrium is concerned, the comparison works in its favor. Unlike The Matrix, the action in Equilibrium is played for economy of screen time – giving us just enough of a glimpse to see how lethal the Grammaton Clerics can be. Equilibrium is the mother of all underrated movies. This film’s only fault is the timing in which it was released. Many people lumped it in with the other ‘Matrix’ ripoff films and cast this one aside. Being a great film that was almost nothing like The Matrix, should have gave this movie an advantage. In fact, if this movie was made before The Matrix, people would be comparing it to this movie.
The kendo-type swords used during the sparing scene were designed specially for the film and are turned wood which broke quite easily during filming because Christian Baleand Taye Diggs were really whacking each other with them.
Equilibrium is certainly worth watching. It has a little something for just about everyone: action, philosophy, acting, sci-fi story, and so on. And for the most part, it presents its story in an economical pace.