The Equalizer (2014)

Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Country: USA

Movie Review: “The Equalizer” was better than I thought, but also promised far more than it gave. Denzel Washington is Robert McCall, a retired black ops government operative who decides to avenge the mistreatments inflicted to Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz), a teenager prostitute working for a dangerous Russian network in Boston. McCall will have in Teddy (Marton Csokas) his most intelligent and dangerous opponent, but the head of the Muscovite gang, Vladimir Pushkin (Vladimir Kulich), is the final target. The thriller was directed by Antoine Fuqua who does much better than in the disastrous “Olympus Has Fallen”, in a plot written by Richard Wenk (“The Mechanic”, “The Expendables 2”), inspired on the TV series created by Richard Lindheim and Michael Sloan. The tension created deserves some emphasis, but as the majority of the action thrillers, there is an abuse in terms of violent scenes that surpasses both meaning and message of the story. We can still find a bit of entertainment in the middle of its darkness, but since the start we become aware that “The Equalizer” doesn’t deliver any novelty on conception and execution. Despite of Washington’s predisposition for avenger roles, the standard procedures shown are aggravated by an expected finale that touches the dullness. One last positive mention is the influential score by the experienced British composer Harry Gregson-Williams. The plot in “The Equalizer” could have been handled differently for better if Fuqua wasn’t so concerned to impress us graphically.