The Equalizer 2

The Equalizer 2 is worse than the first one. The first movie wasn’t good.

The Equalizer suffered from a serious lag in its narrative thrust, which consequently affected one’s connection to the distressed characters, namely teenager Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz) and the protagonist himself, Robert McCall (Denzel Washington), a widower who promised his late wife that he would leave his life as an intelligence agent behind. The movie was afflicted by a serious dearth of tension in between the few action scenes – the sequel has the same issues, except it spins its wheels for even longer.

The Teri equivalent in this outing is an underprivileged young man with an artistic gift called Miles (Ashton Sanders, the teenage Chiron in Moonlight). Miles crosses paths with McCall after seeing him on one of his many jobs – the one where he paints murals. Miles offers to work for him and the agent can see he’s skilled in illustration. McCall shares his love for literature with the kid by passing him a Ta-Nehisi Coates book. Anything to help the aspiring artist, who’s initially taken by the thug life. Perhaps some of the impressionable youths watching will pick up Proust and Price too, if any good comes out of viewing this otherwise mediocre action flick.

Obviously McCall squares off with the gangsters who entice Miles but the bigger threat is revealed later on, following intense events surrounding fellow counter-terrorism agent Dave York (Pedro Pascal) and old comrade Susan Plummer (Melissa Leo), the latter who’s the only other connection to the previous film. That’s right, it’s not necessary to see the predecessor to understand The Equalizer 2 and there’s no need to see this one either. The multi-Oscar winner alone can’t save his first ever sequel from being such a drag for the middle 80 minutes and neither can the host of talented supporting actors.

The opening sequence is cool, where we see Washington unnerve some criminals (probably because he looks so much like Zakir Naik) on a train to Turkey and punishes them for their immorality. The video game-like climax of the film is genuinely exciting too, playing out like a boss battle in Metal Gear Solid. It materialises in an evacuated town hit by the strongest winds, which threaten to knock everyone off their vantage points or freeze them whilst they’re still standing. By the end of it all, we’re left feeling cold too.

Musanna Ahmed

The Equalizer 2 is released nationwide on 17^th August 2018.

Watch the trailer for The Equalizer 2 here: