Film Review - The Equalizer 2 (2018)

I think we can all agree that Denzel Washington could read the phone book for two hours and he would captivate us in ways not many actors could. With a career that has now spanned forty years, the two-time Academy Award Winner has one of the most diverse and fascinating roster of films that have seen him take on , multitude of roles, whether Malcolm X in Spike Lee’s magnificent biopic; as lawyer Joe Miller in Philadelphia; or as former assassin Creasy in Tony Scott’s Man on Fire, a film that his two Equalizer films are, in one way or another, trying to replicate. Re-teaming with Antoine Fuqua once again, Washington takes on his most challenging role yet: a sequel.

After the events of the first Equalizer, Robert McCall (Washington) is trying to reclaim something of a normal life, and a sense of humanity, so he has moved into a new home and taken a job as a driver for hire (Uber-esque). Slowly re-acclimatising himself to those around him, he begins semi-friendships with some regular customers as well as a young kid who lives in his building with a desire to be a artist but whose head is being turned by drugs. His need for justice for those deserving still burns bright, however, and he still feels the itch from time to time, whether drug lords, rapists or local bullies. All that changes when a close friend is murdered in cold blood and the web of deceit pulls him further out of the shadows once more and back to old haunts, and colleagues, who may have been behind it.

Fuqua, who peaked with 2001’s Training Day when his mix of gritty realism, unabashedly over-the-top violence, and whip-crack pacing was a perfect synergy, again insists on more of the same which for fans of the first film will be music to their ears but for anyone else, this may put you off altogether. It’s a perfect platform for his style, strangely – a sequel that’s bigger in both action and scope than its predecessor – but such is his insistence on his go-to bravado that after a decent opening 20 minutes (and a very impressive car chase that makes you yearn for more of it), everything becomes stale and pretty dull for the duration. Indeed, the screenplay by Richard Wenk doesn’t help matters as it simply doesn’t know what it wants to be: more of the same vigilante justice or political whodunnit mystery? We’d love to see Washington tackle the latter in the right project but over-complicating matters here just doesn’t work.

This would find its way to the nearest bargain bin in lightning time had if it wasn’t for Washington who quite frankly deserves huge credit for keeping things at least interesting when he’s on-screen. Marking the first time the Oscar Winner has returned to a character on film, a challenge in itself for any actor, his gravitas and sheer power as a performer that is such that you wish he was doing something, anything else than this. You can see why he would be drawn to such a reclusive man, physically and mentally scarred from decades of helping others (not to mention losing his wife), but you can’t shake the fact that such a man would have been better served in something with more weight than just exacting bloody vengeance.

There’s no doubt, as the US box office returns would suggest, that there is a huge audience for Equalizer 2 but when all is said and done there isn’t a lot to recommend here bar another dynamic performance from Denzel Washington, which just about saves the day. There are few smatterings of excellence here but they are far too sporadic, leaving this unnecessary sequel sorely missing any hint of smarts or inventiveness.