Equilibrium is a fairly familiar sci-fi movie.  It features a dystopian, post-apocalypse future ruled over by a cruel, fascist dictatorship that has come to the realization that human emotion is the cause of all of man's inhumanity towards man.  So, the populace is supposed to take a drug that keeps their emotions in check.  Of course, there are those who disagree with this policy, and they embrace art, music, culture, all of the things that make human beings feel. In order to deal with these people effectively, the government employs the Gramaton Clerics who practice a martial-art based on years of statistical analysis of gun battles and plane geometry called "gun-kata".  The theory is that every possible outcome of a gun battle with n number of participants can be foreseen, and therefore allows the clerics to dodge bullets with superhuman ability.  If this kind of broad, sweeping physics violation bothers you, best to stay away from this movie because there is no more explanation to their ability than that.  However, while watching the cleric clear a room, you really won't care how they are able to do it. 

Enter John Preston (Christian Bale), who is the highest-ranking Gramaton Cleric and the most lethal.  After finding out that his cleric partner is a 'sense offender', and missing one of his regular doses of the drug, Preston starts to question the emotion-free lifestyle he has been defending.  The movie goes from there.

I enjoyed the gun battles, but I think the plot has problems.  For instance, if the cleric are the highest order of unfeeling automatons, why is every cleric featured in the movie secretly a sense offender?  Also, you can tell Kurt Wimmer (writer and director) is a writer first and a director second.  Not to take anything away from his direction, but there was more story and less gun-kata than I would have liked.  Wimmer spends a lot of time on Preston's sense realizations, so we see Preston running his hands on things and being awed by the beauty of everything.  I also felt that Wimmer was a little heavy-handed with the Nazi metaphor.  There is even a state symbol that could be a swastika with the arms straightened.  Yes, I recognize that it is a cross and the clerics are like monks and the whole thing is kind of a religion, but it is in a lot of shots.  The story is pretty basic, but it works in this case.  However, if this is an action movie, then lets get to the action.

Equilibrium also takes itself pretty seriously, which you may like or it could annoy you.  Also, if you are a stickler for sci-fi rules, you may be offended when the characters talk about being 'pleased' or smile.  If they are unfeeling, then there would be no reason to be pleased or smile.  Perhaps the drugs just keep their emotions in a low state, as opposed to eradicating them altogether.  In other words, just wait for the guns.  The reviews I saw were pretty hard on the movie, and I say, 'to hell with that'.  It features some good acting, a familiar sci-fi setting, a good story, and some very good gun work.  It isn't The Matrix, so don't let anyone convince you that it is.  And, thankfully, it does not feature any bullet-time.  It does have some "shaky-cam" and some sped up footage, but if you're a fan of comic book style, over-the-top action, I think you'll enjoy the gun-kata.  Go into this with the right attitude, and you'll come out happy.