The Equalizer 2 - Review

Release Date: July 20, 2018​

Equals Trash

I went back to watch The Equalizer before going to see the sequel in theaters. To my surprise, I found it was not as good as I remembered it being. It was slow and the directing wasn't that great. I go to see The Equalizer 2 and I am surprised again. The action scenes we much better directed in this movie, but the pacing is still bad. The movie feels way too long and makes me wish I could have paused it to resume it the next day. It was so slow I wanted to fall asleep.

But back to the action. The opening of the movie has a short action sequence that takes one minute to complete. It acts as a throwback to the first movie, with the camera flying into Washington's eye and the lights flashing. This thankfully never happens again. The depiction of the action was good and actually helped the choreography look better. All the action scenes for the rest of the movie are satisfying and not super slow like in the first movie.

​What is not better than the first movie is the story. The pacing is still slow, cutting between weird moments that don't flow together. This movie actually comes off worse because of the split in the story's focus. It tries to depict two lives crashing into each other. One about a man who is a guardian angel for the people around him, the other is about a man being hunted by Ex-CIA agents. One moment will be used to show the agents killing drug addicts and the movie will cut to Washington's character running after a boy from his apartment building. The movie is disjointed and has no sense of flow.

The biggest problem this movie has is its third act. It has a cool premise but is executed poorly. So many insert shots that take away from the tension. Weird camera placement that doesn't show off the actions taken by characters. It is just an overall mess.

Do not watch this movie in theaters if you can help it. Wait for it to go on a streaming service so you don't have to spend money on it.

                                                      5/10                                                        
                                That is a generous score