allyourbasearebelongtous - fighting for justice in godmode

Rating: 6/10 (14 December 2014)

In my opinion, this movie has two things going for it: 1) Its start. The protagonist is just one of those world-literature-loving, working at a hardware-store insomniac retired black-ops-kinda-guys. He's helping the people around himself better themselves and is generally a pretty cool guy. The story starts off slow, but you get enough time to get to know the characters and get attached to them. Although in the trailers it looks like the young prostitute Alina, played indifferently by Chloe Moretz, and what happens to her are the starting point for Denzels characters hunt for justice, she gets beaten up once and then pretty much disappears. 2) Denzel Washington. He's just badass.
Apart from those, I think "The Equalizer" wasted a lot of potential. None of the mooks the Russian mob sends against him (Wahshington) stands any chance, and there's really only one instance in the plot where Denzels character (Richard, I think?) actually has to fight for his life. Briefly. In other, comparable, movies, like, for example, "Taken", for me a lot of the suspense was created by the fact that, although taking names and chewing gum, the protagonist was still just a human. This feeling disappeared quickly watching the beginning of the second act of The Equalizer.
All things considered, I still believe the "Equalizer" to be an enjoyable way to spend two hours, but if you haven't seen a lot of these hunt-for-revenge-kind-of-movies, I'd recommend seeing the better ones first (Taken, the man from nowhere, the bourne trilogy, the list goes on).