Firstly, to fully enjoy this film you have to suspend your disbelief. It seems so obvious to say this in a review but the amount of other reviews that go so bent out of shape about the realism of a single man taking on…well everyone, and the types of weapons used and so on is, as usual, quite high. I admit I often can get tangled up in the silliness of film-making but if you read the synopsis of this film you know what is going to happen before you even press ‘play’.
Overall the film treats you as an adult. People get killed in rather painful ways and with blood. The ‘hero’, Robert McCall’ isn’t indestructible and gets hurt, not much to be fair, but he does struggle fighting against a bigger man.
In truth the film is greater than the sum of its parts with director Antoine Fuqua and Chloe Grace Moretz adding to this but the jewel in the crown is magnetic, charismatic Denzel Washington, without him this film is average, with him it is great.
The slow-down ‘eye-of-the-tiger’ scenes that start the action scenes are well filmed and a clever method of showing what is in essence fifteen or sixteen seconds of violent action, although they are too reminiscent of the method used in the Sherlock Holmes franchise.
The film has flaws that stick in the craw, for instance in the final scenes the black-hats go from ruthless we don’t care about anything killers to bumbling fools who fall into simple traps even though they know a killing-machine is out to get them and Moretz’s prostitute is a typical Hollywood ‘tart with a heart’ and is too pretty and too nice to be authentic but I guess if she was realistic this would destroy any empathy the audience might feel. Also Marton Csokas’ evil enforcer is far too pantomime-like to be menacing in my eyes and his accent was slightly distracting.
The actual premise of a one-man army who has retired and then is forced back to his old ways to dish out violent and instant justice is not new or even new to recent cinema history.
John Wick, instantly springs to mind as an equally violent and visceral film in this category but like John Wick, The Equalizer at least tries to treat the violence as having some consequence, as in you are going to get very badly hurt, there is going to a lot of blood and it will not be clean and clinical.
None of these type of films ever deal with the aftermath or consequences of a three figure body count in just one small area of the USA but to be honest this not what they are about. They are not realistic takes on organised crime, special operations operatives or the grey area of vigilantism but neither have they presented themselves as such. You are meant to watch some really bad people getting some unpleasant vengeance handed out to them like you sometimes wish might happen in real life. I was happy with this before I started to watch and consequently the film made sense to me.
There are other films and shows that ask different questions of the same subject and if I were watching one of those then the targets would be different. It is a simple equation that so many people seem to miss on viewing a film.
Overall though, if you don’t take this too seriously and just sit back and watch Denzel Washington play an interesting killer, who despite his murderous tendencies you might actually like to know, then you should enjoy yourself. Just try to relax into it.
