It only took me fourteen years to get to it, but I’ve finally watched ‘Equilibrium’ yesterday. In spite of my penchant for dystopian aesthetics and the brilliant choreography of the (otherwise entirely nonsensical) combat scenes I have a few major bones to pick with the writers.
First and foremost: the whole concept of Prozium. Subtle. Very subtle. Way to go, demonizing psychiatric drugs. How dare all these people nowadays suffering from depression and anxiety tend to chemical imbalances in their brain by means of pharmaceutical interference? It dulls their (otherwise unbearable) emotions. This is unnatural, almost as horrible as Polio vaccine.
On a less personal note, the ban on all emotions is inconsistent at best. Anger and ambition seem to be just fine, so long as expressed by authority figures. Not to mention the fact that one cannot detect emotions in others without doing some sense-criming of their own. Naughty.
Oh, and the assumption that arts provoke violence by provoking emotions. Sure, that’s why musicians, poets and humanists are so well known for their violent tendencies.
Should I even get started on their armed combat theory with all the pseudo-scientific babble? Nah, I guess this one is all too clear.
And one last tiny observation: the entire premise reeks of distilled bovine scatology extract.
But hey, Christian Bale. And puppy.
