The Equalizer 3, the final film in the trilogy based on the 1980s TV series of the same name, reunites the successful duo of Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington, who deliver a well-executed action thriller hampered by a formulaic structure and a weak third act.
The film begins with a scene in which an Italian farmer enters his home and discovers several of his men dead. The camera pans slowly around a room, revealing the dead bodies and emphasizing the brutality of the murders. He walks into a different room and sees that his men have captured Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) and are holding a gun to his head. The filmmakers do not explain what MacCall is doing there or why he is pursuing the farmer until much later in the film. He then murders everyone and walks outside the house, where he gets shot by a young boy whom the farmer had advised to stay in the car. It’s a perfect opening scene and does a great job of establishing the film’s tone and setting a high bar for what’s to come. MacCall ends up in Altamonte, a small village in southern Italy, where he is treated by a kindhearted doctor named Enzo (Remo Girone). He begins to settle in the town and develops a fondness for its good-natured people. Eventually, MacCall discovers that Altamonte is controlled by Camorra, the Italian Mafia, led by Vincent Quaranta (Andrea Scarduzio), who extorts and tortures the locals. He also comes across Camorra’s operation, involving the import of ISIS-made hard drugs, and contacts CIA officer Emma Collins (Dakota Fanning). When Vincent’s torturing of the village people becomes more frequent and violent, McCall decides to take matters into his own hands to equalize the wrongdoings.
The Equalizer 3 follows a similar pattern to the first two films by having McCall move to a new setting and make new acquaintances, and although his affiliations with these new people are not as poignant as, for instance, his ones with Miles’ character in the sequel, he nevertheless becomes an integral part of Altamonte and gets accepted by its people, which suffices in making the film emotionally resonant. The film also benefits from having a villain in Vincent, an out-and-out cruel man, and a barbarian, and despite being one-dimensional, he serves the story well because he is clear about his goals and will stop at nothing to achieve them. His innate ruthlessness and violent nature are on full display in scenes like the one in which his thugs throw an elderly man out the window and leave him dangling outside or the one where he stabs the Head of Police in the hand and slices it.
By the time the third act begins, the film promises to be a riveting finale, but the makers take the easy way out with lazy writing, resulting in an uninspired payback that doesn’t do justice to the intriguing setup. Although the action scenes are graphic, effective, and impressive, they all feel one-sided, and MacCall quite easily overpowers everyone in the film without even a scratch on his body. As a result, the impact of these action scenes becomes obsolete because you always know what the outcome will be. And if there aren’t any roadblocks in the way of the protagonist reaching his objective, the film becomes monotonous and predictable, as is the case here.
Denzel Washington is as flawless as ever as he carries the film (and the franchise) on his able-bodied shoulders. Denzel’s performance skillfully balances his dominating on-screen presence with sensitive moments of self-reflection, introspection, and contemplation of morality, life, and death. However, Dakota Fanning’s character, Emma Collins, is underutilized, as she is only used for expository scenes when she might have been effective as MacCall’s deputy. The Equalizer 3 has its moments, but it leaves you wanting more.
You can watch The Equalizer 3 at a theatre near you.
The Equalizer 3 movie links: IMDB
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