Now in southern Italy, former Marine and DIA agent Robert McCall must protect some villagers from the Neapolitan mafia.
Archangel Michael represents the power of the forces of good against evil.
That’s essentially what the charitable Robert McCall is in Antoine Fuqua’s The Equalizer trilogy (Training Day, Emancipation).
The religious symbolism remained subtle in the first two chapters. In the one that opens this Friday, she is almost in every shot, the film is so full of Christian imagery.
The work opens with a beautifully filmed scene – three-time Oscar winner Robert Richardson is cinematographer – in which the camera slowly enters the interior of the main building of a vineyard in Sicily. Bodies whose lives have come to an abrupt end litter the route to the cellar where Robert McCall is waiting, seated on a chair. Two men hold him at gunpoint. The other two who have just joined them are also armed. A few seconds later, the quartet will be dead.
In a world of John Wick and almost every Liam Neeson film since Taken, Denzel Washington has created a selfless, invincible man character who remains interesting for his enigmatic character. He kills to do good, of course, but we love him above all because he seems fundamentally good. Fate simply made him possess a great talent for taking down the bad guys. The Equalizer 3 continues in the same vein, but overly associates Robert’s actions with his faith – or that of his actor.
The story takes place mainly in the bucolic village of Altamonte, where everyone knows each other. Robert – or rather Roberto – recovers from his injuries there and meets people who, like him, have a good background. However, these are threatened by the Camorra, the Neapolitan mafia. Luckily for them, Robert is where he needs to be.
Richard Wenk lacked inspiration for this third adventure, because his screenplay is prodigiously thin. There is so little to tell between the scenes of violence that we follow the movements on foot or by car of each character for a long time. Robert Richardson does it very well, at least.
It doesn’t get any better when the CIA comes in. Suddenly, terrorism and the “drug of jihad” are mentioned. Dakota Fanning plays the inexperienced agent who learns everything about Robert by spending only 15 minutes with him. It’s sweet to see the two actors back together almost 20 years after Man on Fire, but the role of the eldest Fanning sister is particularly insignificant.
The next The Equalizer could tell the past of Robert McCall. Antoine Fuqua mentioned to the NME site that he would like to rejuvenate Denzel Washington with the special effects. We prefer the rumor that his son, John David Washington, embodies the young Robert, because the father deserves his retirement on the Amalfi Coast. And U.S. too.
