Review of The Equalizer 2 (2018) by Tim H — 19 Jul 2018

Way better than the 1st one, but it still suffers from being what I like to call a "Middle Aged Man Fantasy Film," wherein your average 50-60 year old man become an invincible, super intelligent, never wrong, perfect being who can literally do anything and is incapable of being injured or making a misstep of any kind. There is never at any time any doubt he will succeed in his righteous mission with only the most minor of scratches, which are necessary to "humanize" this godlike creature.

He is perfectly moral, a perfect physical specimen in spite of being a dad bodied 63 year old, the perfect killing machine. He saves puppies and orphans, gives perfect life advice at the perfect time, and will not even break a sweat when taking on an army of supposedly similarly perfect soldiers who will for some reason become incompetent meat puppets as soon as they face our hero, in spite of literally fighting along side him and studying his techniques for a decade. Kind of sucks the tension out of every action scene when our valiant champion takes out a crack squad of highly trained assassins with the same ease he displayed beating up a bunch of drunk frat boys an hour earlier.

But that's not the point of this kind of movie. The point is to provide middle aged men and out of shape popcorn munchers an escape from their own mediocrity so they can imagine themselves to be this invincible saint for two hours.

So turn of your brain and enjoy the spectacle, it is fun to watch if you don't think too hard. Then go watch the original Die Hard for something much more enduring and intelligent.