The best comic book movie of the year

Rating: 9/10 (24 September 2014)

I never saw the television show and I have no doubt that Denzel's Robert McCall character is quite different than the TV show character, but he certainly is the best superhero of the year. And that is simply what he is. Antoine Fuqua uses close ups of Denzel's face as he assesses impossible situations and then comes out unscathed usually leaving behind a pile of baddies. I was reminded of Christian Bale's Batman character in those scenes.
Reviews of the film have been tepid so far mostly citing it as being clichéd, and implausible, but looking at this like a superhero film elevates it considerably. The Russian mob characters are the heavily tattooed super villains led by the talented Marton Csokas. The violence is all comic book in its execution with a grand finale that takes place in a Home Depot type store. Let's just say Denzel gets creative with a host of the store's products. In fact, the only violence that did not seem comic book like was when the Csokas first exams photos of the bodies that were left in McCall's wake.
And the best news of all is that when the film ends we are left with the feeling that we will be seeing McCall in action again, hopefully soon.