Makes John Wick Look Realistic

Rating: 6/10 (8 July 2018)

"The Equalizer" is based off of an 80's TV show about an ex-spy/mercenary that helps people with problems that need to be solved outside the law, and while the movie ultimately sets this aspect up, most of the film just leads up to that point, and I have to assume isn't really connected that strongly to the show.
Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua have worked together before in the memorable and very well-crafted "Training Day", but Equalizer shows that the people involved are only as good as the script, and that's where the weaknesses of this come into play, as well as some silly editing and scene-transitions.
Middle-Aged Men action films are something of a sub-genre now after Taken, with multiple franchises and installments based around the concept, including the very popular John Wick series. You always use a jury of your peers, so John Wick is the peer to something like Equalizer, and is better because Wick established a stylized alternate world to our own and had well-practiced choreography without jump-cuts, edits, and slow-motion. Wick also got beaten up and ran out of ammo several times in the movie, and had to be saved by friends more than once; in short he was skilled but still human.
Denzel's Robert McCall almost never expends a shred of effort, with planning skills that would make Batman look like a sloppy procrastinator. It's still fun for what it is, and Chloe Moretz, Martin Csokas, and the rest of the cast do a great job in their roles, but the movie gets more and more absurd as it goes in terms of how resourceful and skilled McCall is, to the point that he singlehandedly takes down a wing of the Russian Mafia, disrupting their entire operation in Boston, and then travelling to Russia and killing the kingpin, all without much effort (even though he does sustain a gunshot wound to the shoulder, which isn't a big deal to him).
I love seeing heroes take on the bad guys, it's a great, timeless fantasy that can be very rewarding and inspiring if done well, but The Equalizer takes any suspense and drama out of the equation, and there's very little struggle on the part of the hero. Wick got outclassed in a hand-to-hand fight and James Bond routinely gets knocked around in his outings, but it's hard for me to root for a hero who at some point doesn't get taxed or pushed, no matter how resourceful they are.
It's saved by Denzel's solid-as-always performance and the rest of the cast, but The Equalizer has material that has been way better by much better productions.