After almost 10 years since 2014’s The Equalizer, director Antoine Fuqua and veteran actor Denzel Washington return for a third movie in The Equalizer franchise, simply titled The Equalizer 3. Fun fact: This is the first time in Denzel Washington’s decades of acting experience that he’s starring in his first-ever full trilogy as a leading man. Is the third and perhaps final instalment in the series of movies worth watching? Read on to find out.

The Punisher

What distinguished 2014’s The Equalizer (it’s also based on an obscure 80s TV series of the same name) from other action movies is that it’s actually a dark vigilante revenge movie, where Denzel Washington played Robert McCall, a former special agent with deadly skills who finds it hard to ignore the bad things happening around him and decides to come out of retirement to wreak righteous vengeance. He’s sort of like Marvel’s The Punisher, in a way. 2018’s The Equalizer 2 was a boring and bloated generic sequel but fortunately, The Equalizer returns to the roots of the dark justice and violent action of the first movie.

The Equalizer 3 begins with an intense opening sequence featuring some gory action. However, while the bloody and gory action scenes are the highlight of the movie, The Equalizer 3 is not a particularly action-packed movie. It doesn’t feature non-stop balls-to-the-wall action like John Wick or the Fast & Furious franchise. When the action scenes do happen, they’re delightfully intense and satisfyingly violent with unique kills that don’t just involve typical gunshots (the way he stealth kills them looks vicious). That being said, most of the action happens during the beginning and climax of the movie. There’s not much action in the middle of the movie, which makes the pacing slightly suffer if you’re expecting a more action-heavy movie.

Another highlight of The Equalizer 3 is its exotic setting, which is more interesting than the conventional US locations in the first two movies. The Amalfi Coast in Italy is a beautiful place, and the movie takes advantage of that by featuring scenic scenes. What makes for a good revenge movie? The best vigilante revenge movies are when the villains act so despicable that it feels satisfying to see them finally getting their just desserts and punishments. The Equalizer 3’s antagonists, who are part of the Italian Mafia, are exactly like that, and they’re villains you love to hate and can’t wait to watch getting punished by the titular Equalizer.

The Equalizer 3 doesn’t have any big issues, but there’s nothing much that makes it as memorable as something like John Wick Chapter 4 from earlier this year. It has some good action, but the pacing makes it so that it’s not enough to watch it just for the action. Denzel Washington does deliver a charismatic performance (as expected from the legendary actor) and looks badass as hell during the action scenes but Dakota Fanning doesn’t really get to do much in this movie.

Dark Knight

If you like revenge action movies with dark and gory violence, you can’t go wrong with The Equalizer 3. If you like the first The Equalizer, then you’ll probably also enjoy The Equalizer because it’s closer to that compared to the inferior The Equalizer 2. Plus, this is the closest thing we’ll likely ever see Denzel Washington a ‘superhero’.

FINAL SCORE: 60/100

We attended an early screening of The Equalizer 3 courtesy of Sony Pictures Malaysia. The Equalizer 3 is slated to premiere in Malaysian cinemas on 31 August 2023.