The Equalizer 2 (Film Review)

2018 Sony Pictures
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua; Written by: Richard Wenk
Starring: Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Bill Pullman, and Melissa Leo
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 121 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 5/10

Former DIA agent, Robert McCall, is unofficially unretired, wreaking bloody havok around the world in order to help out people in need. In between "missions," he tries to relax back at his Boston apartment, but gets sucked into violently helping people there, as well. However, he's still able to keep things impersonal...until his old friend at the DIA is killed...and the murderers appear to be DIA agents.
2014's The Equalizer is a nice surprise, a tale of vengeance that firmly places Denzel Washington next to Liam Neeson atop the "aging, highly critically acclaimed actor becomes grizzled action star" pantheon. Few if any other actors could so convincingly portray both the paradoxically paternal and angel of death sides of McCall. Washington is just as good in 2018's The Equalizer 2, but the film's story lets him down. The sort of procedural, nearly episodic nature of the first film fit the character and Antoine Fuqua's snappy direction perfectly. These movies should feature the McCall character taking on the burdens of his helpless neighbors, so jumping right into a personal grudge match story for the second film after just setting up the nature of the character in the first film feels like an unwanted, unsatisfying left turn when the car has just got onto the highway.
That's not to say there aren't some satisfying moments here. McCall still gets to bust some heads and help some people out in an entertaining fashion. Also, I find Pedro Pascal strangely unlikable and quite punchable, so his heel turn here feels very natural. However, everything that works in the first film and doesn't in this second is perfectly exemplified by the climax of the two films. In the first, McCall must rescue and defend most of the characters we've come to know, violently defeating his foes in the hardware store setting we've become familiar with throughout the film. In The Equalizer 2, McCall's rescue of another character is secondary to the grudge McCall has with the foe himself, and as Washington and Pascal fight atop a tower in an unfamiliar seaside town assaulted by a CGI hurricane, the film just feels like any old generic action flick. By trying to make the conflict more personal, the filmmakers have somehow made The Equalizer 2 feel less personal, and a pale shadow of its predecessor.