If you have a problem and there is nowhere else to turn, the mysterious and elusive Robert McCall will deliver the vigilante justice you seek. This time, however, McCall's past cuts especially close to home when thugs kill Susan Plummer -- his best friend and former colleague. Now out for revenge, McCall must take on a crew of highly trained assassins who'll stop at nothing to destroy him.
Wow, yet another unlimited card pre-screening - this time the film was Equalizer 2. A follow on from the very popular series during the 80s, and even though I am not familiar with this series, I could tell that this film is a large success and long awaited film for audiences and fans alike. The film was a really strange one, not necessarily in a negative way but the film definitely portrayed itself in a strange and mysterious manner. Overall though, it was an interesting film and gave me plenty to think about...
I'll start with what I liked about The Equalizer 2. The film kicked off proceedings very nicely, by throwing the audience straight into the action, whilst simultaneously giving us a good introduction to the main character within the film. It had a really positive effect and the fight scene at the beginning really helped the film to engage strongly with the audience right from the start - it also gave a strong implication of what type of film it would be and the type of character that Robert McCall is. But it wasn't just action that helped the film to kick off really well, the cinematography such as the pan camera shots to establish the amazing sceneries around the world, combined with the constantly switching audio really helped to give a dangerous impression of not only Robert, but also the entire film. I was also really impressed with the dialogue and characters throughout - the dialogue was really helpful to make the relationships between the characters feel real and genuine, from small inside jokes to a real heart to heart, the variety of dialogue between characters really helped to portray an idea of relationships between the different characters in the film. The film also switched locations a lot during the film which had some positive effects too, it really helped to solidify the impressions we had of the different characters - simply because we were able to see them in a variety of different environments, this again was another piece of the jigsaw that helped to make the great character relationships truly feel real. This was helped by the cool effects that the film offered. These really made the film appealing to the audience, simply because they showed new and fresh perspectives to us; such as the time lapse of the New York skyline. It wasn't necessarily relevant, but it helped to portray the location and environment that our characters were in and had a positive impact overall. Another great element was the car camera angles, I loved the inclusion of having side cameras to show us driving from a back seat perspective and out of the window. It was a really nice effect and was met well by the audience.
But what the film did best was to play with the emotions of the audience, the film introduced us very cleverly to a variety of different emotions throughout the film. The clever aspect was that the scenes were fairly predictable, but they still had the audience on edge and nervous throughout them and these were presented in a great manner that just helped to build the character relationships and characteristics. The use of a variety of audio sounds was also key to how the film portrayed these different scenes, it matched the mood very well and was crucial to building and holding tension and suspense throughout the film. The film is an action, all action films need a great audio to help reflect what is being seen and this film was no different, the audio was great. There were plenty of shocking scenes and gruesome violence that even though it wasn't the nicest to watch, it did really help to build the characters and keep the audiences attention, scenes such as the fingers being broken to being shot with a harpoon were all received by cringe noises from the audience but I don't feel that the violence was overdone here. Maybe a little gruesome at times yes, but the main impact that these fight scenes had was to keep the audience interested and it was very successful in this aspect, I think most audiences were constantly on the lookout for any other grim scenes so that they could hide away!! But these shocking scenes were important to keeping the focus of the audience on the film. Like I said, the film changed emotions very well and what I especially liked was how the audiences emotions seemed to match that of the characters - whenever they received news or we saw an action scene the characters always seemed to represent the emotions of the audience which was really nicely done and made the scenes feel really refreshing. This helped to build a relationship between the audience and characters. Throughout the film, the audience are put right into the story and the addition of an investigation helped to get the audience to engage with the film, we were constantly on the lookout for clues and even though many of them I missed - I still felt like a detective. And what made these scenes interesting was the foreboding through dialogue between characters, it allowed us to question every scene whether that character would be hunted down next or how they would escape and this just kept every scene tense and exciting, due to the unpredictability. I loved the choices of characters and actors in the film as well and I think that they had a large say in the films success, I really think that Denzel's performance was great in the way that even though he was a high ranking army official and a damn good fighter - he still felt human and friendly to the audience. The film was able to mix these personalities together well. But all of the characters felt important and despite me getting a little confused as to why Harry Maguire (if you see this you'll see) and another character switched, but this was just me getting confused... These great characters also helped to portray an important message outside of the film too, by following a 'gang' member and seeing how his anger and rage from the death of his brother seemed to be channeled with the use of Robert McCall as a type of mentor and it portrayed a strong message. A message of being who you want to be, regardless of what you are told and to work hard in school - a big generic but it was presented well and really seemed to hit home for audiences. There was also a great 'chase'/battle scene at the end which again, played with not only our emotions but our heart rates this time, it was very cleverly executed and helped to ensure that the film had a very strong and secure ending. The film seemed to cut off loose ends to the plot very well (again, another pun...)
The film wasn't all positive though, there were also many issues that I just couldn't ignore during this film. I'll start with the main issue, I wasn't sure at all of the plot or as to the relevance of many of the scenes until roughly an hour into the film. I liked how the film dedicated a lot of time introducing us to Robert, but I personally didn't understand or get a real grip of the plot and the reasons for different parts of the plot well into the film. This is something that should be established fairly early on during an action film. Many of these scenes felt irrelevant and led me to wonder why they had actually been included in the film in the first place, for example we were shown many different taxi rides and conversations that I just feel weren't that relevant and for me, caused the plot of the film to be slightly confusing and led to a few questions. I mentioned the grim scenes too, some of these just felt a little too grim and weren't helpful, especially as I was left clutching my hand after a characters hand was brutally broken. But they did seem to get a reaction - although not such a positive reaction from me or my stomach!
The main problem for me really was the execution of the plot, I really wasn't sure as to what the point of the first part of the film was - apart from introducing us to Robert's character. Although, this just seemed to make the rest of the plot slightly confusing and questionable for me too. Despite some scenes being unrealistic, I was able to look over them, but what I wasn't able to look over or even understand was the importance of many of the scenes or as to why it took so long for us to be introduced to the main storyline.
Overall, I would rate this film an 8. I think that it was actually really good, the characters seemed really genuine and the film presented them in a really positive and great manner through the use of adaptive relationships and us seeing multiple sides to the same character - giving us a personal feeling to the characters. But what really let the film down was the blurry plot and the poor execution of the first half of the plot, I was left trying to decipher many of the scenes and what their relevance was instead of actually sitting down and enjoying them and this was really problematic for me. But, overall it's a good film and definitely worth seeing, just make sure you have a strong stomach!
Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing the review and watching the film. Thanks again and have a lovely day. :)
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