The Equalizer 3: Movie Review

Cast: Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Eugenio Mastrandrea
Director: Antoine Fuqua

Feeling more perfunctory than unforgettable, the third outing for Denzel Washington's vigilante Robert McCall leans very much on the cliche and stereotype while pleasingly eschewing the gun-fu shenanigans made famous by John Wick.

As the film starts, Fuqua's camera weaves through a maze of the massacred, before settling on Washington's calm and collected McCall sitting in the basement of a Sicilian vineyard cellar waiting for one last person to show.

After being injured, McCall's forced to make a small town on the Amalfi coast while he recovers - discovering as he does that he harbours an affection for the inhabitants and is affected by their kindness.  However, that calm deep within his soul is soon brutally shattered as he discovers the Mafioso-like Camorra exerting their grip on the locals - and he faces a decision whether to intervene or walk away.

Paired once again with his Training Day compadre, Washington settles into an easy groove as the murderous assassin, who appears like a ghost throughout exacting brutal kills and immediate takedowns, a sombre reminder of the horrors man can visit on others. But Washington's deadeye demeanour and surly gait means he has to do little in some scenes for maximum effect - something which is brilliantly conveyed in an early shocking moment. 

The film settles into an easy homage to stereotyped seaside coastal life - scenes of a Cinema Paradiso-esque village suggest the quaintness of a simpler life, where villagers share a bond over years of communal suffering and celebration. At times, Fuqua leans too hard into the coastal cliche and the film begins to resemble a postcard rather than a well-pitched drama.

Sure, the film ramps up the violence - a man's dispatched by a gun barrel to the eye and various bones are snapped in brief bursts of brutality, but given the film's script embraces such cliche and stereotypes in its thinly-written bad guys it's hard to emotionally care or cheer when they're shown the ultimate exit door. 

Perhaps that's some of the problem with The Equalizer 3, a threequel that doesn't invest in originality, and relies a little too much on the nuances of those who've been following the franchise to get the pay off required. There's emotional heft if you're a follower, but as a stand-alone movie this feels fraught and while well-executed (pun intended), nowhere near as clever as the first film was.

Washington delivers his character arc with ease as his McCall seeks peace and salvation, and scenes with Fanning's CIA agent showcase the chemistry the pair shared a few decades back with Man On Fire, but despite all the menace conveyed by his withering stares and tacit demeanour, The Equalizer 3 feels fine, but slight in comparison to what's gone before.