There are many brainless sci-fi films out there and I think “Equilibrium” managed to fool people into thinking it’s dumb. The film contains lots of fast-paced action sequences yet behind them is some surprisingly intelligent sci-fi. It’s no “Blade Runner” but it’s a lot better than a lot of people give it credit for.

Set in a fascist future where emotions are outlawed and suppressed by drugs, “Equilibrium” follows an uncompromising law enforcer by the name of John Preston (Christian Bale “The Prestige”, “Batman Begins”). He stops taking the ‘Prozium II’ drug and begins to feel emotion. Overwhelmed and unsure of what to do at first, he soon finds himself helping a resistance movement to help bring down the totalitarian regime.

Christian Bale is great as John Preston and this is a particularly interesting role as for a significant amount of time, he is without a shred of emotion. As the film continues, Bale manages to perfectly play a man wrestling with the existence of his emotions. Taye Diggs (“Chicago”) plays Preston’s partner, Brandt, and he does a good job. Sean Bean (“GoldenEye”), Sean Pertwee (“Event Horizon”), Emily Watson (“Red Dragon”) and William Fichtner (“Contact”) are all fairly forgettable. One of the best characters is Preston’s son, who provides some real tense moments.

The action scenes might be exciting but they are filmed rather poorly and there’s lots of fast editing. As you can tell, I didn’t care for the action scenes but most of the other stuff on offer here is entertaining. I was very impressed with Bale’s performance and I like the sinister world that the film creates. Avid fans of the sci-fi genre will no doubt recognise elements here from “Judge Dredd”, “The Matrix” and many other movies but “Equilibrium” is still able to create an entertaining experience.