On one hand, the story has been done a million times in pulp literature and the direct to video market. You've seen the story a million times. It shamelessly rips off Brave New World, 1984 and Farenheit 451. The plot was a cliche of a cliche.
On the other hand, though. This is one kick ass action movie. For what it lacks in plot, it more than makes up for in creative action content.
In the aftermath of a nuclear war, mankind has rebuilt society on a fascist foundation. Blaming the cause of genocide on human emotion, a new society sets out to eradicate man's self destructive nature by destroying emotion entirely. They do this by dosing a chemical called Soma. Wait... er, no. It's called Prozium. To keep people from feeling, they also seek out all forms of emotional expression, art, creativity and burn it. An elite police force named the Tetragrammaton is established to seek out Thought Criminals... or were they called Sense Offenders?
There's a heavy Sense Offender resistance happening in the ruins of old civilization as well. Screens all over the city of Libria project images of Big Brother... Actually, Sean Pertwee, herein named Father. Christian Bale plays Grammaton Cleric, John Preston. In the beginning, he's teamed up with Boromir, another cleric who has secretly stopped taking his prozium and is collecting books and art confiscated from Sense Offense sites. Preston confronts him and is forced to kill him and this sets off a chain reaction of thoughts that lead Preston to stop taking his prozium and begin to feel human again. Taye Diggs is Preston's replacement partner, an unquestioning and ambitious cleric. When Preston rescues a puppy from extermination in a heavily melodramatic scene, it puts him on the path of resistance and he ultimately leads the uprising.The plot dawdles, there are a lot of false twists where you think Preston is busted. There's an awkward love story between Preston and Mary, a captured offender... but the real star of the movie is Gun Kata. Gun Kata is the amalgamation of what makes Hong Kong action cool. Kung Fu and gunplay. Wielders twist and move their bodies into positions that, according to the movie, are statistically optimal for killing and dodging bullets. It's silly, it looks really weird, but the scenes where it's used are the absolute peaks of the movie. If anything, they're the real reason to see this flick, everything else is tedious and contrived. The only REAL trail blazing this movie does in a world where every action movie strives to be The Matrix is to add a fresh take on outrageous action movies. There's also a lot of solid photography that makes use of strange camera angles that makes even some of the most wooden acting seem interesting.
I was, personally, let down by this movie. Since it got such a limited release, few people saw it. Those who did came out hailing it a future cult classic and the ultimate sleeper action movie. I guess time will tell, but utimately it was a series of very creative action scenes punctuating a plagiarized and dreary melodrama.
