"The Equalizer 2" - Review

I’m not mad about Equalizer 2, I’m just disappointed. Considering the pedigree behind it — director Antoine Fuqua and star Denzel Washington — there’s absolutely no reason for a film like this to feel so utterly lifeless and half-baked. Watching a star like Washington mete out brutal justice to assholes who have it coming is one of the reasons cinema was invented in the first place! This should be a slam-dunk. Unfortunately, the film wallows in clichés and lazy, predictable story telling. There will be heavy spoilers going forward, but honestly if you’ve seen this type of movie before, you know all the beats of Equalizer 2 from frame one.
 
Robert McCall (Washington) is a hyper competent, literate badass with a heart of gold and former CIA black ops operative. When he’s not moonlighting as a Lyft driver in Boston, he’s using his CIA training to dispense brutal justice to bad guys around the world with the help of his partner/best friend Susan Plummer (Melissa Leo). When Susan is murdered under mysterious circumstances in Brussels, McCall takes it upon himself to bring the bad guys to justice. Sort of. He actually spends most of his time being a surrogate father figure to his neighbor Miles (Ashton Sanders), who’s a good kid, but might be falling into an inner city gang. But McCall is undeterred and he’ll set this kid right and get the bad guys — hopefully with the help of his former CIA partner Dave York (Pedro Pascal). Oh and Bill Pullman is in the movie for about two minutes. And if you’ve guessed that 1) Dave York would end up being the ultimate villain and 2) that Miles will be used as a hostage in the climatic action set piece, congratulations, you’ve seen a movie before.
 
There are so many frustrating things about Equalizer 2. First of all, it’s 2018; we need to retire the “former partner” turns out to be the villain trope. The moment Pedro Pascal appears on screen you know he’s the villain, and it removes most of the tension from the film. The script doesn’t even play it in a “can we trust this guy” sort of way. Secondly, the film seems far more interested in McCall’s relationship with Miles, but that emotional core is totally interrupted by the CIA plot. Secondly, McCall is SUCH a hyper-competent badass that he gets out of every dangerous situation he gets in without a scratch. Now look, I love the John Wick films, which work on a similar premise, but at least Keanu Reeves gets his ass kicked in those movies — making you think he might not make it out of a fight. But here you know Denzel will win, so the action sequences don’t have much tension or edge to them. Okay, you say, but does Equalizer 2 have anything to say, thematically? Not really. The clichéd story could be used as a vehicle to explore how violence corrupts our society, or something, and some lip service is paid to that idea, but ultimately dropped.  
 
So Equalizer 2’s story receives a no-prize, but to give credit where it’s due – Denzel Washington’s performance here is pretty good. Washington is one of the best and most empathetic actors we have. He’s always able to get an audience engaged with his performances, and never phones it in. Here he’s able to move between badass warrior, literate philosopher and stern father figure with ease. It’s unfortunate that the movie around him doesn’t support this performance. Everyone else in the cast is fine – it’s just that Richard Wenk’s script doesn’t give them anything really to do.
 
Fuqua’s direction is fine, but there’s no real verve or energy to it, and the set pieces are few and far between. There’s one moment where an assassin in his car attacks McCall, which is a great action moment.
 
So ultimately The Equalizer 2 is a mostly mediocre movie with a good Denzel Washington performance. Inoffensive in its blandness, with nothing really to say, it will kill time for you if you really don’t want to see Mama Mia: Here We Go Again.
 
One and a half out of four stars.