Equilibrium

I'll preface this post by saying yes, I am a movie HO.

Keep in mind most of my free time comes early in the day or after midnight, limiting me in activities and available persons. I could go out to clubs, but really, IMHO, picking navel lint would be more entertaining.

I got another request from a friend in Las Vegas to review Equilibrium, an older Christian Bale movie. So here goes.

Equilibrium is a dark movie asking a rhetorical question -- How would life be if none of us felt any emotion?

The world has just survived World War 3. In the catostrophic aftermath the new world ruler, The Father, has decided to excise the one thing that makes us humans engage in destructive behavior, our emotions. There is a new police force, The Gammatron Clerics, they keep the peace by enforcing and taking down those that violate "Sense laws". These are harsh: no books, no music, no color, no feelings. All citizens of the new world take a daily drug that mellows them into unemotional droids. All public places have screens that play The Father's video messages repeatedly.

Bale is a Gammotron Cleric, a high ranking one. He does his job with robot like efficiency. One day he inadvertently skips a droid pill. First, he rescues a puppy.Then he helps save a woman sense offender. In short, he starts to remember what its like to be human. Another Cleric becomes suspicious. Thats when all hell brakes loose.

Who will win? Can the human race truly survive without that which makes us by definition, human?

Overall this is a decent film, although Bale carries all of it on his 6'2" frame. Its nice that he's eye candy, better that he can act. This role primed him for Batman, physically intense.

There were too many Bale scenes that reminded me of The Matrix. Even the sound track reminded me of The Matrix. Come to think of it, even some of the clothing was very Matrix. Not bad, it did work with the Orwellian bleakness of the film, it just seemed an obvious hijack.

I give it 7/10. Good for aThursday night rent.

On a funny side note, I invited Yvonne and Clay (from the Fauxmosexual Post) down from their digs on campus to watch this with me . They are about the only people I know that are available at 11pm on a Thurs. to watch a 2 hour movie. During a bathroom scene with a bare-chested and well-toned Bale (pic above) , I almost laughed out loud when I heard this,

Clay: "Dude, Bale is hot, I could have a man-crush on him!"

Um, yeah, I bet you could Clay.

Yvonne, punching Clay in the arm: "Back off bitch, I saw him first!"

I'm starting to worry about the two of you, seriously. :)