Imagine a society where all emotion is crushed; where the dizzying highs of elation and the hideous depths of depression are no longer a choice. Normality consisting of an ever-constant even keel in temperament is at the cost of what makes us human. Sounds like the way things are going right now, wouldn't you say? With television feeding us mindless garbage, big business practices forcing us to become ever-flexible cogs in their diabolical machinery and the horrid repetition that forms all our lives - sooner, rather than later, the nihilistic society detailed by Equilibrium will give us a taste of its jackboots. STOMPITY-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP! Forever!

Never mind that, though, we've got our prophet in the form of Equilibrium to show us how things are going to be done - and it would seem to involve Christian Bale quite a bit, too, so we can't be too disheartened. Apparently, in the future, should any of us feel any form of emotion, Christian Bale is personally going to come round and shoot us in the head, with all sorts of fancy kung-fu/gun hybrid action. A small price to pay, I feel; after all, he was excellent in American Psycho.

Do not worry. Our death will not have been in vain, as Bale's fragile grip on cold faux-reality will soon afterwards be lost when he ceases taking his emotion-stunting drugs, paving the way for cute puppy dog-rescue, red-ribbon sniffing, his first tentative feelings of love and the rebellion against his former employers. All this is carefully interwoven with his other pastime - shooting people in the head.

Away from the prophet's scrying eyes! Let's think the unthinkable for a minute here. What if Equilibrium is - GASP! - just a film? Well, if that's the case, Bale is excellent - he IS the action hero. Equally at ease with showing emotion and blasting people away, he has added a touch of class to this film. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of Taye Diggs who seems to inject emotion when clearly the part says "Don't show any emotion at all! EVER!". Brian Conley; that cheeky chap from ITV makes an appearance as well, which is quite bizarre. He gets chucked about all over the place though, so it's quite acceptable, if just a tad bizarre - you can't help but subconciously go "It's a PUPPET!" when he's on.

It isn't the most original of concepts - borrowing heavily from 1984, The Matrix, any kung-fu movie you can think of and no doubt some Fancy Dans will think of books I've never heard of before when they see this. Who really cares, though? The film is thoroughly enjoyable even without the faintest hint of originality. Well worth seeing.