Rent Equilibrium (2002)

Unoriginal Matrix clone - Equilibrium review by CP Customer

After World War III comes close to destroying human civilization, mankind decides war and violent crime must be avoided at any cost. In order to prevent this, all emotions and items that might elicit emotions are prohibited. Everyone must take Prosium, an emotion suppressing drug. Those who refuse to take the drug are labeled 'sense offenders' and are hunted down by State's elite police force, known as the Clerics. John Preston (Christian Bale) is a highly dedicated Cleric, though when he accidentally skips a dose of Prosium; his newfound emotions cause him to question the wisdom of his emotionless society. He is then recruited by the Underground, an outlawed pro-emotion movement, to take on a seemingly impossible mission, to assassinate the political leader behind the State and free humanity from the tyranny of Prosium. Equilibrium's costumes, camera angles, martial arts sequences are low budget copies of 'The Matrix', and the storyline borrows heavily from films like 'Fahrenheit 451', 'THX-1138' and George Orwell's '1984'. If you're a fan of action films, you might get a kick out of some of the martial arts gun sequences. Otherwise, give it a miss.

Despite its dated look, there is huge fun & great action here, with a great Christian Bale - Equilibrium review by TB

The future is bleak and horrific, according to Kurt Wimmer. You won’t be free, you’ll be chained to a cycle of taking medication to make the world inhabitable and be controlled in every way through the state. 

Christian Bale and Sean Bean police this state, making sure everyone is staying in line. Until one day, Bale catches Bean breaking the rules, causing him to question everything that he had held dear. Bale then has to start to fight back in order to keep his life and his sanity.

The film is dated and in places cheesy, but also great fun. And for a film of this budget (very small compared to others,) the action is great. Bale shows an early masterfulness of being able to perform this flawlessly, which no doubt helped him get the role of Batman. There is also a welcome amount of British actors cast alongside American ones. Emily Watson, Sean Bean, Sean Pertwee star with Bale. Taye Diggs is also great as Bale’s apprentice and then chief antagonist, chewing up the scenery for all its worth. 

Silly, fun and light entertainment.  

Matrix-inspired fart - Equilibrium review by AER

This plays like a movie-within-a-movie - you know like the sci-fi Julia Roberts' character is in in Notting Hill. Nothing convinces even the valiant attempts of the actors to give it some weight. It was cheesy in 2002 and it's just funny now, especially when you realise Brian Conley is in it. Made me wish he'd brought Septic Peg back. Anyway, if you like The Matrix, you won't like this Euro piece of plaigiarism. It's very droopy.