I don’t know why this is the one film Denzel Washington feels emotionally attached to that he keeps making sequels. The first film was fine. Gritty, he kicked ass, and equalized. Now, somehow he’s in Europe protecting Dakota Fanning and some Italians, and I’m really not sure how we got here. It’s like they are trying to apply the rule of John Wick to the Equalizer, but he works much better as a Luke Cage figure, who defends his own neighborhood than going global. Wick needed to stop a global organization, I’m not sure that fits here.

Still, the first ten minutes of this film are so brutal it’s obvious the film is going for a hard R rating. I caught this on Netflix, where it has audio description from a group I’m less familiar with (Motion Picture Solutions), a writer I’m unfamiliar with (Angie Piper, and narrated by a few people I was also unfamiliar with. It does require multiple voices since, again, we are inexplicably in Italy.

This is not a bad film, it’s just a franchise that keeps making sequels and doesn’t need to. Antoine Fuqua is a director who has the capability of delivering excellent films, like Training Day, but he can also miss the mark. I think he’s not quite getting the most out of an aging Denzel Washington, and is worried too much about how to balance his obvious target demographic, along with the new fans of these unassuming men who kick ass films, which tend to skew young. In a genre that has turned even Bob Odenkirk into a believable action star, you would think it wouldn’t be that hard, but this script doesn’t do much. It ropes Dakota Fanning in, and she really doesn’t need to be here. This franchise works whenever Washington steps in to give a fistful of voice to the voiceless, and theoretically he could do that anywhere, but it just seems silly that no matter where he goes in the world, there is a giant criminal enterprise needing equalizing.

The fight scenes are well done and well described, the action is brutal, perhaps even more so than the previous two (although I’ve only ever seen each film once). I’m not a huge fan of this series to begin with, as I would probably give the first a B+, and the second maybe a B. but, transferring to Europe for a little bit older little bit wiser Washington barely works.

Please, don’t make a fourth.

Final Grade: C+