The Equalizer 2

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When a good friend of his is murdered, Robert McCall (played by Denzel Washington) goes on a path of revenge to find the killers. Up to this point, he has been trying to keep himself on the down-low. I will give a fair warning that this movie moves at something of a slower pace than the first film. One of the things that struck me (and sort of rubbed me the wrong way) was the fact that the trailer revealed the friend’s death. I admit that this isn’t the fault of the filmmakers, so much as the fault of whoever put the trailer together. This movie has a twist villain (and I guessed who it was pretty much right away). I won’t give it away in case anybody hasn’t seen the movie yet. The action feels pretty visceral. It almost seems like you feel every bone crack, every gunshot, and every knife slice. Washington as McCall is a force of nature as he usually is. The man actually has some pretty powerful moments. The best one in my opinion is the “What do you see when you look in my eyes?” scene. It helps that Washington and director Antoine Fuqua have worked together multiple times. The movies they have worked on together include the likes of Training Day, The Magnificent Seven, and the first Equalizer movie. I appreciate that the movie kind of wants to explore McCall as a character. I feel like I know more about his backstory through this movie than I really did watching the first film. This is the movie that looks into his past relationships more. The first film told us he had a past, and that he had past relationships. This is the movie I think told us more about who and what his past and past relationships were. There are some points where it could feel like the movie repeats elements from the first film. I also think this handles those moments better than the first film. At points, this movie could feel a little long. However, when I tried thinking of things I would cut out to shorten the movie up a little bit, nothing came to mind. A lot of the film felt necessary. The movie’s multiple subplots were actually wrapped up (and helped build McCall as a character). Overall, The Equalizer 2 has its problems. At the same time, I think I preferred this film to the original. 

8 / 10