After you watch The Equalizer, you never look at a Home Depot quite the same way again. It was one of those movies that looked like it would at best be mediocre, and then surprisingly turned out to be an inventive, fun little Taken-wannabe starring Denzel Washington of all people. While it ended with a sequel hook, it didn't seem to be the kind of thing that would ever get one, and yet, here we are with The Equalizer 2.
As you may have guessed from my previous writings, I'm always skeptical of sequels, particularly when it comes to sleeper hits like The Equalizer that seem like perfectly self-contained stories. We saw how the Taken franchise descended into garbage real fast, for example. Then again, we've got John Wick 2 now to show everybody how it's done: keep what's good, expand the world, don't repeat the first movie beat for beat.
The trailers for Equalizer 2 didn't look like it would repeat the first movie beat for beat, so that was good, but it did look like it was going to water down the concept from a guy helping people around him to a guy just getting revenge for his friend. Now that I've seen it, I can tell you the trailers are a pretty accurate representation of what you're getting here.
That doesn't mean it's terrible though, so let me tell you how The Equalizer 2 manages to balance out the bad with some good:
As you may have guessed from my previous writings, I'm always skeptical of sequels, particularly when it comes to sleeper hits like The Equalizer that seem like perfectly self-contained stories. We saw how the Taken franchise descended into garbage real fast, for example. Then again, we've got John Wick 2 now to show everybody how it's done: keep what's good, expand the world, don't repeat the first movie beat for beat.
The trailers for Equalizer 2 didn't look like it would repeat the first movie beat for beat, so that was good, but it did look like it was going to water down the concept from a guy helping people around him to a guy just getting revenge for his friend. Now that I've seen it, I can tell you the trailers are a pretty accurate representation of what you're getting here.
That doesn't mean it's terrible though, so let me tell you how The Equalizer 2 manages to balance out the bad with some good:
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ReplyDeleteI am new to your blog and I immediately thought of my little nephew when I saw your user name and your display image. He is a huge fan of dinosaurs. Anyway, thank you for these reviews. I am looking forward to reading them!