More Than Just Another Denzel Washington Action Movie?

Rating: 5/10 (29 September 2014)

Antonie Fuqua, director of Training Day, has created another harsh and energetic vehicle for his star, Denzel Washington—another determined warrior who's out for no-holds-barred vengeance. The Equalizer, for that matter, has a lot of style—there's no doubt about that. Its cinematography is genuinely impressive, permeated by shots of glistening skyscrapers, luxury cars, and heavily stylized, slo-mo portionsbut it's ultimately all too familiar. The Russians, of course, represent the one-dimensional villains here who merely function as tools to showcase Washington's wild skill set. The tone of the film is certainly its strongest suit—very gritty and dark in a glossy cosmopolitan setting that's oftentimes seen at night. There are plenty of painful deaths and an abundance of blood to be seen.
Other than that, the plot gets rather ridiculous very fast. In fact, we discover soon that its wonderful tone actually isn't very fitting for the content of the movie. A world that's initially established with realism, beginning to introduce compelling themes and displaying how Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) strives to be a better man—strict exercise and diet regimens, relaxed dinners with classic literary works placed right by his plate, and an optimistic philosophy with which he helps improve his friends and colleagues as well. We quickly learn that he's clearly a man of dignity, integrity, and self-respect; quite the compelling start into the first twenty minutes.
The narrative first fleshes out the tedious routines of his every day until we run into Chloe Moretz's character, Teri. Though she's given disappointingly little screen time, Moretz, as usual, shines with every minute she's given—a deeply vulnerable adolescent whose innocence glimmers from her eyes, slowly and tragically vanishing while she's raised in a strongly depraved environment as a hooker for the Russian mafia. She doesn't see through the same hopeful eyes that Robert does, and there we see two completely irreconcilable worlds encounter one another—that of the ponderously cynical and that of the buoyant or even, shall I say, naïve. Can we truly change the environment in which we have already developed ourselves? Just how plausible is this seemingly mythical betterment of self? These are some of several philosophical concepts and quiet moments of character introspection and reflection as the austere streets of Boston (somewhat resembling the ambiance of 2007's Gone Baby Gone) outside their windows go on by.
Well, all of that potential is quickly squandered as The Equalizer jarringly metamorphoses into a blatant, clichéd action flick that becomes less and less remarkable as it progresses. With his gimmicky watch-setting and slow-motion maneuvering around any given predicament, you suspect that McCall might just be another unstoppable superhero after all. Whereas Man on Fire (a film that can easily be compared to this one) mixes emotion with a hell-bent Denzel—hunting down the kidnappers one-by-one with realistically brutal methods—this movie, on the other hand, becomes incredibly outlandish when the protagonist begins effortlessly killing dozens of baddies in one confined arena, magically having enough time to implement creativity into each take- down as well. And, you know, Washington plays a character he has portrayed many times before: deadly serious and tough as nails in his manner of speech and physicality.
In addition, its runtime of 2 hours and 11 minutes doesn't grant it any favors either. The final (explosive) sequence runs on for far too long and feels like it took up almost a quarter of the film. In the movie's first action segments, the grisly violence is undoubtedly shocking, as well as exciting. By the end, it becomes monotonous and unspectacular. The violence is by then cleverly shadowed as to dramatically reduce its severity; I guess it's the implied ways by how they're executed that occasionally provoke the squirms from the audience. But even after that prolonged final confrontation, the film unnecessarily continues with multiple additional scenes as Washington (somehow) masterfully climbs even farther up the mafia ladder with fueling revenge.
The impeccably stimulating score by the ever-talented Harry Gregson- Williams screams with the same tragic emotion and melancholy that Man on Fire did but never effectively translates that onto the screen. If only there was creativity applied to its insipid story and a more grounded approach (complementing the grittiness of its tone), The Equalizer could've made for a memorable action film. At the end of the day though, audiences will likely remember it as just another Denzel Washington action movie among many.