SCI-FI thrillers are the genre of the moment.

The success of The Matrix seems to have encouraged film-makers to experiment with new styles of cinematography and special effects. Unfortunately, many of them come across as poor imitations.

And while Kurt Wimmer's film Equilibrium (15) is enjoyable, it is no exception.

Imagine taking Brave New World, 1984, Gattaca, Minority Report, The Matrix, putting them all in a blender, whizzing them up and pouring it out, only to find what you've got is Christian Bale with a dark suit and a drug problem.

This film works on an interesting concept we can't have love without hate, we can't have happiness without sadness. So it follows that to attain world peace, you need to rid society of all emotions. The higher the high, the lower the low, so if the high is barely high at all, the low won't be all that low. You've reached an equilibrium. The problem with this, of course, is that everyone is really boring.

Except the criminals. A world without war has only one crime sense offences. Specially trained clerics, who take on a role that's a mix between the religious and the military, hunt down people who are reading banned books or listening to music or keeping pets or reciting poetry. (Art lovers beware: there is a brutal attack on the Mona Lisa in the opening sequence that could be quite upsetting.)

John Preston (Bale) is the best of the clerics. An expert at Gun Kata (a style of karate using guns) and able to sniff out sense offenders with the accuracy of a bloodhound, he's hard to beat. Which is why he knows that his partner Partridge (Bean) is off his daily drug intake of Prozium, and starting to have feelings (and read Keats).

But when Preston misses one of his own doses of Prozium, he begins to see this dictatorial society in a completely new light.

It is always nice to watch a Hollywood action flick that actually makes you think. Equilibrium's concept did just that.

But if you compare it with the film in this genre that set the precedent, The Matrix not only made you think it made you want to see the film again to make sure you actually 'got it'.

Christian Bale offers an excellent performance. It is almost as if the part was written with him in mind.

It is just a shame the story didn't offer something a little more original.

Rating: 6 out of 10