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Dom Robinson reviews
Momentum Pictures
- Cert:
- Cat.no: MP240D
- Running time: 103 minutes
- Year: 2005
- Pressing: 2006
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 20 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £17.99
- Extras: Trailer, TV Spots, Finding Equilibrium, Audio Commentaries
Director:
- Kurt Wimmer
(Equilibrium, One Tough Bastard, Ultraviolet)
Producers:
- Jan de Bont and Lucas Foster
Screenplay:
- Kurt Wimmer
Music:
- Klaus Badelt
Cast:
- John Preston: Christian Bale
Brandt: Taye Diggs
Mary O’Brien: Emily Watson
Dupont: Angus Macfadyen
Jürgen: William Fichtner
The Father: Sean Pertwee
Robbie Preston: Matthew Harbour
Errol Partridge: Sean Bean
Seamus: Dominic Purcell
If a song should be used as the theme to Equilibrium,it should be Howard Jones’ Welcome To Conditioningsince every trace of feeling has been wiped from the minds of mankind… or at least itshould be if they don’t want to incur the wrath of The Grammaton Cleric.
This movie presents a society that almost out-“1984″s 1984 itself and with a landscapethat looks like it belongs in the gameHalf Life 2where, as a result of a third World War, The Grammaton Cleric outlaw the lawless leavingmankind only to be allowed to supress their emotions and not be able to think for themselves.It’s almost like that Simpsons ‘Treehouse of Horror’ episode where everyone must thinkhappy thoughts, but then that’s not even allowed either.
Everything centres around a place called Equilibrium where The Father (Sean Pertwee)dishes out the law from behind closed doors and rates anything he deems fit “EC-10″ for”Emotional Content”, while leaving lapdog Dupont (Angus Macfadyen) in charge towith anything that might be a bit difficult. It’s also from this place where the tablets ofProzium are dished out to control the public.
In all, after everyone’s injected themselves with Prozium and rid themselves of all potentialthought and excitement, it makes their world about on a par with that of the inhabitantsof Eastenders.
The best of the best in this society is John Preston (Christian Bale) who’s quite happyto take out the trash and burn priceless works of art just because such things make mankindfeel good, but soon after he discovers his partner, Errol Partridge (Sean Bean) hasbeen having independent thought – aka a “sense offence” – and has been snaffling books fromthe Nethers, where the dregs of society reside, for some time recently, and Preston – principledman that he is – is going to sort him out. And woe betide anyone who stands in his way becausehe’s a lethal machine thanks to the Gun Kata, which trains him to be so by anticipating the movesand counter-moves of your enemies.
Alas, before you can shout “Hello, Mr Pot, here’s Mr Kettle”, Preston decides to breakfree and charges about righting wrongs around the stark locations as if he’s appearing in aMaxell blank cassette advert from 20 years previously. You see, his wife was arrested andincinerated for a sense offence four years earlier and when he comes across the latestsense offender, Mary O’Brien (Emily Watson who looks stunning in this movie), hefalls for her because he’s been off the tablets for a while and wants her all to himself.That said, it’s not going to be an easy task to accomplish.
About the cast in this movie, this was actually the first time I’ve seen Christian Balein a leading role, despite him having made many a film in his time. He’s just the right manfor the job here as he perfectly puts across the cool demeanour of a principled future copbefore realising all those policies are bullshit and that he wants his own way after all.The next two of his I plan to catch up with are Batman Begins and The Machinist.
Taye Diggs takes up the role as his partner after Sean Bean is relieved of his position,while William Fichtner plays a key role in assisting Bale but I won’t say how. For thosewho know his name but aren’t sure who he is, Fichtner played the blind guy Kent inContact, he was Sheriff Tom Underlay in Invasion, took time out to be the voiceof Ken Rosenberg in the Grand Theft Autocomputer games and is currently appearing as FBI Agent Alexander Mahone in the second season ofPrison Break. Coincidentally, although they don’t share screen time, that show’sDominic Purcell plays a resistance fighter in a cameo role here early on.
Overall, the plot behind Equilibrium is not a new one, but it’s one that’s carriedout nicely. Thanks to cast, crew and writing on display, this all makes for a very entertainingfilm even if it is one of those that’ll have an obvious ending. Ignore anyonewho makes comparisons with The Matrix.I thought that one sucked, but this is great.
The film is presented in its original cinematic ratio of 2.35:1 and is anamorphic. The pictureis a bit stuttery as the camera pans across, but otherwise it’s a very clean and crisp print,bringing out perfectly the bleak world in which the film takes place. This is not related to thefrequent action moments when a faster shutter is used in the filming to giving a similar lookto fast-paced events in the movie. The film was shot in Super 35, but the 4:3 presentationof the featurette mentioned later on proves that the CGI scenes suffer really badly in croppedform. In fact, I was spurred on to buy this DVD having seen the opener on Channel 4 recently, butI could see it really suffered being in 16:9 with standard surround sound.
This DVD carries only a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, but it certainly cuts the mustardmainly for the frequent action sequences.
The extras are very few and are as follow below, but don’t include the ‘GunKata’ featurette mentioned on the back of the box:
- Trailer (1:32): Presented in 16:9 letterbox, this spoils quite a number of key moments in the movie so don’t watchit prior to that.
- TV Spots (0:50): There are five TV trailers here, shown in 16:9 anamorphic, but the weird this is that they all lastten seconds each, but that’s followed by ten more seconds with a frozen picture, so the time for thissegment should technically be 1:40. I wonder why on Earth they’d do that?
- Finding Equilibrium (4:25): A brief puff-piece about various aspects of the film, all briefly, with soundbites from key cast membersand the director. It’s not something that’ll trouble you to watch it a second time. This piece is in4:3 fullscreen.
- Audio Commentaries: There are two here. One from director Kurt Wimmer on his own, with the other featuring bothhim and producer Lucas Foster.
The only subtitles come in English, the menu system reflects the tone of the movie but there’s somethingwrong with the chapter selection menu. There are 27 chapters within, but only 15 of them are accessiblefrom this menu, making it seem like there are less than there really are. I don’t understand the pointof this and I’ve never seen Momentum do this before. In fact, it hasn’t been something I’ve comeacross since the early days of DVD and the 1998 release of the Michael Douglas thrillerDisclosurewhich had 44 chapters, but made it look from the menu like there were only 9. I hope this isn’t somethingthey do again.
PICTURE QUALITY
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.