Equalizer 3 Review

Denzel Washington is a cinema heavy but his vigilante series "The Equalizer," with part 3 debuting this week, gives him nothing to do but look imposing and recite faux-philosophical and sometimes doomy dialogue betwixt bursts of extreme bloodshed. The mayhem is well shot by director Antoine Fuqua, who's helmed all three flicks, but so what? Violent films are a dime-a-dozen, and "The Equalizer 3" seemingly ends the franchise with a third act feeling left on the cutting room floor.

Of course I have no idea of the production history, but all the sudden the credits rolls and I'm left feeling cheated- the bad guy and hero exchange threats, tell each other that they'll meet again "soon," only for exactly what you think'll happen to immediately happen. Suspense is something in such short supply here that the film's trailer was more dramatic.

That isn't to dismiss the movie completely: the action is well shot, well staged and well acted, but the plot is simultaneously underdeveloped and needlessly complicated: Denzel of course returns as Robert McCall, who we see avenging a throwaway character when he stumples upon a drug-smuggling operation at a winery. He's shot by a young boy and is found by Italian policeman Gio (Eugenio Mastrandrea), who takes him to the town's local doctor Enzo (Remo Girone) and patched up. This of course means we ye olde trope of having our hero needing to recover their strength, but come on, why toy with the audience? Does anyone think for a second that his injuries are going to have any baring on the plot? It. Does. Not.

Perhaps it's Denzel's advancing age (the man's nearly seventy!), but an injury is (allegedly) a cinematic way to distract from the idea maybe he's too old to be taking down baddies like he does. In fact much of the action tales place in the dark of night, with McCall sneaking up upon foes; could it be that he's just not as sprightly as he used to be?

Almost the entirety takes place in this little Italian village, where we get rudimentary scenes of McCall interacting with the locals, and moments like this are just more and more cliches. He's reduced to the mysterious and mythical stranger who rescues a town in peril. It wouldn't feel so slightly insensitive if the townspeople had more to do except live quaint little lives where they sell fish, serve tea and coffee and help the community. It's an idyllic false reality that only exists in Hollywood and travel brochures.

There's a parallel narrative where McCall alerts the CIA's Emma (Dakota Fanning) to his earlier drug bust, and it's just narrative noise. The who's, why's, when's and how's amout to "terrorists" and the Camorra, or as the film tells us, the "Italian Mafia," and so what? The bad guys do bad things not because they have anything interesting to say or do, but because that's what stereotypes are.

Honestly the most interesting thing is how there exists a film trilogy, based on the 80's show, exists concurrently with a reboot of said show on TV, all of which share the name "The Equalizer ." I have not watched the new series, or the old one for that matter, but it can't be as disappointing as the first, second or third film.