Solid enough thriller, but it's far too long and never seems entirely sure what it wants to be

Rating: 6/10 (30 May 2015)

Denzel Washington plays Robert McCall a man with a mysterious past who is now working at a DIY Centre. McCall now enjoys the quiet life, but when he meets Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz) a young girl who is brutalised whilst she's under the control of the Russian Mob, McCall finds that he needs to use all his specialist skills and know-how to bring the mob down and set Teri free from them.
The first notable problem with this film is its running time and clocking in at around the 2 hour 15 minute mark one could argue that there's not enough material to justify such a long running time. It also seemed that the writers didn't really know what sort of film that they're making; it starts off with McCall having to protect Teri from the mob, then while she's laid up in hospital it then turns into a Death Wish type film where McCall becomes a vigilante and makes his mission to avenge anyone who wrongs his work colleagues then he'd go back to pursuing the mob and then it would cut back to McCall protecting his work colleagues. These deviations were good to watch. but had nothing to do with the story making me wonder why they were included? It does make the film a little messy at times and a lot of it felt like unnecessary filler.
McCall is an anti-hero here and is a fairly likable individual; he's a bit of a man of mystery and we learn very little about him throughout the film. I do get a bit annoyed when films don't develop their characters, but this wouldn't matter so much if this film had a much tighter running time (90 to 105 minutes), but it's tough to get fully involved in a film that's this long when your main character hasn't been developed at all. Aside from not learning much about McCall's past the writers don't bother to explain other things such as McCall constantly stopping and starting his watch - did he suffer from some kind of time-obsessed compulsive disorder? How did he manage to track down the bloke that robbed the money from the store and the ring from the woman? He's clearly got an eye for detail as he noticed various distinguishing features on the man, but how did he track him down after he left?
Although I had quite a few issues with this film I have to admit that I did enjoy it and it's great fun watching Denzel kick a load of ass and at nearly 60 years old he's quite clearly not too old for this sh*t just yet. The editing is also fast, sharp and of very high quality. The final showdown at the end was also entertaining and it was quite intriguing seeing how McCall would off each baddie. Denzel Washington is great here and does pretty much everything that Jason Statham can do (only with Washington you get better acting and perhaps slightly more charisma). Moretz is a good little actress, but she's criminally under-used here.
The Equalizer is a fairly good film but it felt like the writers tried to do too much and as a result it made the film far longer than it needed to be. Still the fight sequences are good, the showdown at the end was fun and creative and despite the odd lull now and again I never got to the point where I was bored. It's certainly worth a look and the ending also suggests that there may be a sequel.