Review of The Equalizer (2014) by Meritcoba — 10 Sep 2016

This is certainly an amazing movie as it shows how great an actor Denzel Washinton is. A lot of credit should also go to Marton Csokas who is great as well and the cat and mouse play between the two is what makes the movie.

Washinton is a former undercover agent who gets involved in a battle with the Russian mob. Csokas is a former Spetznaz who has to track down and remove the problem Washington.

The biggest flaw in the movie is that Washington is presented as an overconfident and overpowered killing machine who knows too much, with him killing a room full of enemies with just his bare hands to start out with in one of the dumbest scenes. And on the flip side: Csokas is soon revealed as a cliche brutish thug, which makes his first appearance, where he is smart, self-assured and cool a downer in hindsight.

Missing is also the obvious third player, the authorities(or journalist?) hunting the vigilante Washington and a love interest or other vulnerability for Washingon. Many movies know that when one makes someone overpowered, you need to a weakness to make up for it.

This makes the movie mostly boil down to Washington talking a lot to people, killing a lot of bad guys and Csokas being a brute.

The climax of the movie is great because of excellent soundtrack Vengeance by Zack Hemsey and it is a brilliant way of giving tension to the scenes. It also has Washington using the various power tools as deadly weapons.

The movie excels in great scenes, moody talks, finely tuned combat scenes and then gets hurt with Washington knowing too much, being too self-assured , being too overpowered and scenes that are ridiculous as the one that has him walking unarmed into a room with five thugs. Washington also never gets hurt until in the last scene.

This makes the movie unbalanced, despite the great acting. A pity.