Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) is back!
After equalizing a compound of bad 'uns, Robert finds himself near death and stranded in Italy.
Brought back to health by a local doctor, Robert spends his time rehabilitating his body and reconnecting with his humanity through his interactions with the town locals.
Equalizer 3 is the franchise stripped to its most essential self. Robert McCall is no action hero - he is the protagonist of a horror movie.
After two movies in which McCall was a one-man-army, executing bad guys with extreme prejudice, Equalizer 3 removes any pretence of a good time and turns into a full-on slasher movie.
There are no real action scenes - most of the violence is offscreen or executed (lol) in brief, brutal spasms.
Where the film lingers is on the effects of McCall's rampages: the opening scene is a series of long takes through a Sicilian villa, as a local gangster discovers his henchmen piled around the building in grotesque tableaux, their methods of dispatch (kitchen implements, other cutlery) betraying a disturbing familiarity (not everyone has been shot - but anyone who has sliced their finger on a kitchen knife will wince at the brutality here).
Washington's performance positions McCall as a man rediscovering himself. There is something quietly childlike in his fixations, like setting out napkins on his table, almost as if he is rediscovering the familiar routines that give him stability.
When his new calm is disturbed by a new collection of bad 'uns, Washington gives McCall a more externalised volatility - in a striking shift from the containment of his form in the previous movies, he shows himself to mafia boss Vincent (Andrea Scarduzio), wandering into a field of fire with arms loose and swinging, loudly proclaiming that they cannot disturb his newfound peace. The actor plays McCall as completely uncoiled and almost willing on his own destruction.
It is not a new signature role, but as his final turn as an established character, it makes for a fascinating juxtaposition with the previous movies.
Outside of its conception of the central character, Equalizer 3 is a little too familiar. It is another story of a bad man seeking redemption by protecting innocents from harm. The villains are uninteresting, Dakota Fanning is a little underserved as McCall's sidekick.
On the latter count, her role is so minor, one almost hopes there is a fourth film in which they can work together.
If you are in the bag for big screen Equalizing, you might get something out of it. I think it is best served as the third in a marathon.
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