The Equalizer 3 completes Antoine Fuqua's deadly trilogy, bringing him dangerously close to making a horror film. These action films rival slashers
with their grisly kills by a relentless killer who refuses to die. Instead of being the villain, the killer slaughters to protect innocents from exploitation
Robert McCall, played by Denzel Washington, kills Russian mobsters, American mercenaries, and the Italian mafia with corkscrews and pistols.
In each Equalizer film, Robert asks, “What do you see when you look at me?” although the franchise offers no moral ambiguity.
The show portrays Robert as a good man and everyone else as either good or evil, with no middle area.
These movies offer little to think about other than betting on which everyday object Robert would turn into a deadly weapon
He just mistreats nasty men. Robert never treats a female character fairly in three films, six hours, and many fatalities, which is backward.
Women exist here as murder victims or damsels in distress with little agency, seemingly incapable of the horrible behavior Robert fights against in his world
of good and bad men. Complaining about female representation in a film with horrific combat scenes is pointless.
Even three films into a morally simplistic franchise, Fuqua still brings his gritty style and attention to visual nuances to every scene.