*Originally written August 22nd, 2018*
I don't know what's more insane, the fact Denzel Washington has never starred in a sequel to one of his own films before, or the fact that this film exists. I thought the first Equalizer was fine, a pulpy and violent time with an interesting enough character in Denzel's Robert McCall. It was simple dumb fun, a little overlong, but it did everything it needed to.
I'm not sure what I even wanted from a sequel, but what I got here was just pure disappointment. I was reminded of the sequel to Jack Reacher, a similarly formulaic affair that completely failed to live up to its first. I'm not sure what went wrong here, the creative team from the first were back and they just doubled down on the problems of the first.
I appreciate they tried to go for a more slow-burn approach compared to the first, their is very little action and the body-count is about 1/10 of the original. This didn't need to be a bad thing, but what they chose to pad this sequel out with is pure filler. There are so many subplots that add up to nothing, or gives you a pay-off that just leaves you shrugging. A particularly offensive moment towards the end that tried to tug at your heart strings made nearly vomit at the cinema. It was just so unearned and unnecessary.
It reeks of a film trying to reach a 2 hour run-time, as the main plot of this feels as though it covers around 50 minutes of the film. Honestly, the main plot doesn't kick in till over an hour in, it was so strange. There's just lots of scenes of McCall driving around as an Uber driving trying to save people or leading a young student away from a life of crime. It could have worked a lot better if they streamlined a lot of this and focused more time on other things.
The relationship between McCall and the kid is the closest thing the film has to a heart and that could have been expanded on more, instead they just rehash a lot of territory they went over with Chloe Grace Moretz' character from the first. I know these films are based on a TV, but it really shows how much better this could work as a more expanded HBO show rather than a 2 hour film. In fact, this whole film feels like a season worth of story lines crammed into one film.
I sound extremely negative, but there were a few things I did like here. Denzel is still committed and gives a decent performance as McCall, our ex-special forces hero with OCD who decides to become a vigilante and Antoine Fuqua's direction does have visual flourish, even though it does steal a lot of ticks from Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes films for the action.
As fine as Fuqua's direction was with the action, it does lack the impact the first bought to the table, there is some really grizzly and narly kills here (It was cut from an 18 to a 15 in the UK, like the first was), it just needed more of it and more creativity. Nothing comes close of McCall's DIY rampage at the end of the first, making use of the tools around him to make a sadistic version of Home Alone. I just saw this a few hours ago and I'm failing to remember any action scenes aside from finale, which had a cool setting, but failed to do anything actually interesting with it.
It all just felt so by the numbers and boring. You know everything that's going to happen by the middle (Dear god, if you can't tell which character is actually the bad guy, then I'm worried about you). I finished the thing with more of an appreciate for the first, which is something I guess? This whole affair is just far too bland, safe and generic to please anyone other than people who just want a dumb action film on the background while they jerk off or something. We're no doubt getting a third Equalizer, but if they don't get some more creative talent behind it, then I'm out. Cinema is dead.
4/10 Dans
The Equalizer 2 is out now in cinemas in the UK. With a HMV Exclusive 4K UHD Steelbook available for pre-order.
Watch the trailer below:
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