The one-man army ploughs on
HOLLYWOOD actor Denzel Washington is obviously one really cool gentleman. Even when he’s dressed shabbily and attempts to look pedestrian, like he does in this movie, he’s still a charismatic chap.
No stranger to the action genre, the award-winning star reprises his role as unbeatable vigilante Robert McCall, who helps regular people out with their “problems”, in an updated adaptation based on the popular TV series of the same name from the 1980s.
With the box-office success of the first installment, the inevitable sequel continues his one-man army journey that showcases a few scenes of him helping out hapless victims.
His ability to quickly assess the threats in a particular enclosed environment, then time himself on his wristwatch as he deftly neutralises them by severely pacifying the enemy, is played out in full cinematic splendour here once more.
But the main plot in the movie involves the brutal killing of his good friend Susan Plummer (Melissa Leo) whom he has known from his days as a lethal covert government operative.
His further investigation into her murder, with help from another agent friend Dave York (Pedro Pascal), leads him to uncover a bigger conspiracy involving other highly-trained mercenaries.
Along the way, returning director Antoine Fuqua (of Training Day fame which also starred Washington) inserts some other homely touches to humanise McCall.
These come in the form of other regular people and neighbours that McCall frequently comes into contact with from his apartment block home and his job as an e-hailing driver.
One particular person is Miles Whittaker (Ashton Sanders), a black youth whom he helps to steer away from going down the path of no return via gangsterism.
At its heart, the movie is just a simple straightforward revenge tale where McCall efficiently hunts down a group of wrongdoers and dispatches them in the most gruesome and painful way possible.
There’s no subtlety to it but then there’s simply no real tension either, since McCall is seemingly invincible as he takes down the baddies without even breaking a sweat.
During the whole run of the movie, viewers will not see Washington getting hurt at all. This makes the action sequences pretty by-the numbers and not that satisfying, especially if the viewer has already watched a lot of other contemporary action thrillers.
The sequel to action movie John Wick, which starred Keanu Reeves as a similar ultra-deadly assassin that criminals dubbed the bogeyman, expanded on the lore and mechanics of that particular world he was in.
The Equalizer 2 seems contented to just provide more of the same from the first movie, without expanding or adding anything substantial to it.
It doesn’t help that the progression of the story is fairly predictable as well.
Quieter moments and interactions between McCall and the other normal characters are all right and serve as a balance to the thrills but unfortunately, they make the viewer impatient for the proper action sequences to occur.
Washington’s character also comes off as preachy in certain scenes, especially when he
gives potential gangbanger Whittaker a hard lesson, with a gun to the head, saying that he doesn’t know what death really is.
From an opening scene set on a train on the way to Turkey via a mountainous route to the finale set during a tempestuous storm at a coastal town, this sequel marginally succeeds in trying to give the next chapter in the story some depth and a bigger feel compared to the first.
Bottom line, The Equalizer 2 is a decent action thriller that viewers with managed expectations would be comfortable with. So don’t expect to be totally blown away by the action sequences.
The best thing going for the movie is still Washington himself though, and fans of the actor should not pass this up.
At 63, he’s still capable of being in the action game, just like Liam Neeson did with the Taken movies.
As the unstoppable McCall, Washington exudes a killer calm with killer moves that sells the unbelievability of it all.