The Equalizer 2

Starring: Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Orson Bean, Melissa Leo, Bill Pullman, Jonathan Scarfe, Sakina Jaffrey
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Thriller
2018

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) faces a conspiracy that has personal connections to his past.

Review:

Tim: After enjoying The Equalizer more than I expected, I was excited to see the sequel- the first of Denzel Washington's career. That was noteworthy enough and with Antoine Fuqua returning, it felt like the pieces were in place for another success. The Equalizer 2 is good, certainly, but it feels like a clear step down from the original. I liked the film, but I also lamented the flaws that prevented it from reaching the mark set by the original.

One of the biggest appealing aspects of the first film was how different the movie felt. It was great fun to see Washington taking out the bad guys to protect everyday people. He'd time it on his watch and read some classics in between. It felt like a different take on the action/thriller genre. I appreciated it and was hoping for something similar here. While we do get some smaller subplots involving that, the bulk of the movie goes off in a different direction. I certainly understand the reasoning behind it- let's make the story of the sequel explore Robert McCall's past. Let's make this one personal. This is usually a really good move and you can point to a bunch of examples where this worked. Unfortunately, it doesn't work here. Or rather, it doesn't work as effectively as the original story does. While it's fun to learn more about McCall's past, this puts the film firmly on a path that has been traveled far too many times already.

The idea of exploring McCall's path makes sense, but again- it ends up giving us what we've seen numerous times before. The end of the path involves (SPOILER ALERT) McCall confronting a group of assassins who he has some previous affiliation with. This ultimately means it's like five on one, as McCall faces overwhelming odds while he attempts to pick them off one-by-one. That aspect of the movie felt so redundant and quite frankly, disappointing. It's a generic plot point and it undermines the entire film. The movie tries to pull in some of those other subplots into the main story's focus, but it feels forced. This movie's story just isn't compelling or original enough. By playing it overly safe by choosing the generic road forward, this movie suffers substantially.

On the plus side, Denzel Washington is once again so good as Robert McCall. It was weird to have the action hero be a Lyft driver, but it made absolute sense in the context of the film. Washington is firmly in his wheelhouse here, so it's no surprise that he gives a strong performance. It was nice to see Melissa Leo and Bill Pullman once again. While they were part of the "past" plot that I didn't care for, it was good to see them reprise their roles. I thought Pedro Pascal did a solid job in his role, but it feels like he's been cast for exactly this kind of role several times in recent years. His casting made his character even more predictable. Pascal might have given a good performance, but it felt like an overly safe, uninspired casting choice. It was far too similar to Kingsman: The Golden Circle and even reminded me of his performance in The Great Wall. I didn't love Ashton Sanders, which was surprising since he had such a large supporting role. The movie would have been better with a stronger actor in this role.

While the overall story felt too generic, the film does offer up some solid scenes. The bro-centric party fight at the beginning is definitely a highlight and the closest we got to reliving the best parts of the original. That was such a great scene. Washington had a few nice acting moments, whether passing on advice to younger people or grieving for deceased loved ones. The climax in the town being battered by a hurricane felt far too weak, although it did offer up a few entertaining moments. At the end of the day, Robert McCall is a great character and Washington plays him well, so you do need to give Antoine Fuqua credit.

While I didn't enjoy The Equalizer 2 as much as the first movie, Fuqua still does more right than wrong. This is a good movie. It made nearly identical box office returns as the original, so I'm hoping that is enough to turn this into a trilogy (and maybe fix some of the issues in this one).

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7


If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Equalizer, Deja Vu, Inside Man, Out of Time