Realism, Violence, Intelligence, Perfect Action Movie for all intents and purposes.

Rating: 9/10 (19 January 2015)

When watching action movies, I always wonder if it's even possible to have a film where the hero doesn't make mistakes, and still have it be a entertaining film with suspense. Because, in too many action movies the hero will slip up in a ridiculous way so the story can lead to the inevitable standoff, but that doesn't happen here.
In The Equalizer, Denzel Washington is an ex-Assassin turned "Bourne again" Assassin who does it right. He's an "ordinary" human being with superhuman skills, unleashing violence when persuasion fails to move the bad guys. The fight scenes are really cool, you have the thing where the situation is surveyed in slow motion and then the fighter leaps into action, I always like it when films show this process.
The movie makes you feel intelligent for watching people get brutally murdered, because Robert McCall is a one-man wrecking machine and he must use his wits to turn the tide against the numerous enemies. He may seem impervious at times, but in no way does his continued survival feel forced.
There are a few minor quips I have about the movie though: There's some ridiculously obvious "metaphors" early on in the exposition (about hope etc) that rather annoyed me because its obvious the writers were trying to compare the character dialog to the impending storyline.
I praise Denzel Washington's character, but his success wasn't completely possible without the villains being at least slightly stupid. Simply, the villains make mistakes. Oh well you can't have everything.
Overall though, with its intelligent yet intense and satisfying violence, a rarity of a "perfect" hero and simply overall entertainment, The Equalizer is perhaps the best Action film of 2014 and you'd be doing yourself a disservice to miss it.