The Love of Battle Was Not Neglected

Rating: 9/10 (27 September 2014)

This picture looks like it is a well-made over the top revenge film, but it is more in the line of a setting things right for the other characters type of story. It looks like this film was based on the TV show of the same name that was released in the '80s. According to IMDb the TV creator got a movie credit. The action and violence in this picture is highly realistic and often brutal. Robert McCall is not the type of guy to go in locked and loaded and blaze away. He is more like to pick up weapons off his targets and make do with what they have lying around like corkscrews or even a shot glass. He is pretty much deadly with anything. I was reminded of Man on Fire (2004) when I was watching this, another Denzel film with a pretty and young, white girl in trouble with the same determination from the protagonist. Still I recommend "The Equalizer". The story continually builds upon itself slowly revealing the larger scope of our hero's world and the director was very mindful of his spaces and was careful where objects were placed and shown. I was pleasantly surprised to keep finding things slide into place in front of the camera. But the love of battle was not neglected. The fight scenes used elaborate setups in editing where extreme close ups of the protagonist's eye would show a reflection of the room, mixed in with half a dozen of cutaway shots this was graphically brilliant in its imagination and ever so off-putting in its gory nature.