EQUALIZER 2

Plot

The murder of Robert’s close friend Susan causes him to reveal that he is indeed alive to those he was once close to. When he discovers who is responsible for her murder, he vows war against them.

Cast/Characters

Returning from the first film are of course Denzel as Robert McCall, but also Melissa Leo as Susan and Bill Pullman as Brian.

New cast member is Pedro Pascal as Dave York, once a partner of McCall’s and the partner of Susan at the time of her death.

Orson Bean plays Sam Rubenstein, one of Robert’s friends who he is trying to assist with a personal project.

Ashton Sanders plays Miles, one of Robert’s neighbours who he is trying to help get off the ‘wrong path’ with the local gang and lead a ‘good life’.

Breakdown

Directed by Antoine Fuqua, his fourth collaboration with Denzel Washington.

Starting with a non sequitur type opening in which Robert is traveling on a train in Istanbul, where he rescues a kidnapped child – and returns her safely to her mother. This to me was the highlight of the film…

Robert is now seen to be a Lyft driver, who is friendly and listens to his clients, taking everything in. Occasionally he even goes above and beyond for them – like beating up a group of men who have clearly done the same to a young woman.

He is friends with Sam, an elderly Holocaust survivor who is desperate to find a painting of his long late sister, and he has taken it upon himself to ‘rescue’ Miles, a young black neighbour from starting up with a gang of thugs. He is also on his ‘last book’ to read that he was working through in the first movie.

When an assassination occurs in Brussels, his good friend Susan must investigate, and she is partners with Robert’s old partner (who believes Robert is long dead from faking his death). This irked me somewhat because he wasn’t exactly in hiding, he had two jobs in two films that deal with the public – working at a large hardware store in #1, and being a Lyft driver here. He didn’t even change his name?

She is murdered while there, and Robert investigates, which he quickly discovers *** spoiler *** Dave was in on it, so vows war against him.

The fact that Susan’s murder occurs almost half way through the film – shows that the writers were more focused on Robert’s every-man/empathetic hero – than vigilante, which feels like a let down. Considering the contrast to the absolute war he brings in the first film where someone he barely knows got beaten up vs his best friend being brutally murdered is disappointing to say the least.

Once it is revealed that Dave is the bad guy, he not only turns into an ‘over the top’ 90’s movie bad guy – we are also introduced to his three cronies, who have zero character development other than to be killed off by McCall in genuinely brutal ways.

The final shootout in McCall’s old hometown (while a hurricane rages on around them just for added tension) is somewhat underwhelming – and of course Dave has kidnapped miles just to add to his super-villainy.

Sam’s epilogue (once the action has concluded) is supposed to be a dramatic pay off, but it just felt cliche and tries to evoke emotion from the audience. It didn’t.

Overall

With a screenplay that tries to be more clever than it is, this film is a jumble of ideas that lean too much towards Robert as the empathetic every-man who tries to help those around him (Miles/Sam), than the vengeful assassin he can be.

His mission here has more foundation for utter destruction (the death of his best friend), but his end result feels underwhelming and falls flat (despite his success).

Not nearly as good as number 1, but still watchable.

3/5

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