The Equalizer and John Wick: When action permanently split in 2014
Two movies alike in premise but very different in execution
JOHN WICK and THE EQUALIZER
Both released in 2014.
Both feature action stars who rose to prominence in the 90s.
Both are about highly trained operatives who are drawn back into action after years of solitude.
Both have Russian gangs as the antagonists.
One featured revelatory action and was a shining beacon for the future of action.
The other was firmly rooted in action’s past.
JOHN WICK
There can never be enough praise for JOHN WICK. It is one of the three most important action movies of the 2010s. (The others being MAD MAX FURY ROAD and THE RAID: REDEMPTION.)
What makes JOHN WICK so special is that it did three things as a movie.
1) It invented a new(ish) style of action. I’m not saying every single action movie needs to invent a new form of on screen combat. I’m just saying that the ones that do show the audience something new will be remembered one way or another. Gun-fu was a natural extension of the heroic bloodshed operatic gun fights of 80s Hong Kong movies. JOHN WICK’s gun-judo (my term) is like an offshoot spoke of gun-fu. Part of it is necessity; Keanu Reeves wasn’t as spry as his younger self. But the JOHN WICK filmmaking team ensured that it looked baller af on screen. The assault on Wick’s home — the first real action scene of the movie — is jaw-dropping. The brutal takedowns, the ruthless headshots, and the clever reloading are all a revelation the first time you see it. Best of all is that JOHN WICK was made by former stuntmen. They knew how to film action correctly. They filmed it in a way that the action legible on screen. This is something that is sorely missing from American action movies and possibly a key reason why action has been looked down upon for so long.
2) The story was filled with attention-grabbing details. Another reason why action has been so looked down upon is the lackluster stories. JOHN WICK understands that a simple story is not a bad story. The actual story to JOHN WICK is well-trodden territory. The hows and whys of the way the story plays out is what matters. JOHN WICK is filled to the brim with engaging lore that demands the audience’s attention. Why John Wick is enacting his vengeance is also engaging. Too often in action cinema it’s assumed that the audience will go along for the ride just because. But if the storytellers take the time to get the audience invested, the ride becomes all the more impactful. This is why JOHN WICK one is still the best of the trilogy. It has the best emotional stakes for the audience to get invested in.
3) It fully rehabilitated Keanu Reeves’ image in the public eye. I’ll never not harp about the fact that prior to JOHN WICK people were mean as shit to Keanu Reeves. Seek out any article, comment section, review, or interview about Reeves and it all has this mocking tone to it. The rehabilitation of Reeves started with the Sad Keanu meme (a form of mocking in itself). After that meme people softened on Reeves. Then JOHN WICK comes out and shows that yes, Keanu belongs in the pantheon of action cinema. Yes, he is a great actor. Yes, he is a genuinely good person. Yes, you should revise all your opinions on his previous movies. Keanu has always been awesome.
JOHN WICK arrival in 2014 is a navigational north star for other action movies. “Follow my lead and you’ll do great!”
THE EQUALIZER
To be honest I don’t remember THE EQUALIZER even coming out in 2014. I vaguely remember hearing the announcement for the sequel in 2018 and thinking “There was a first EQUALIZER movie?”
Which is kind of the point of why it’s a great comparison. THE EQUALIZER exemplifies several of action movies’ more negative traits and why the genre is looked down on.
1) The action is not clear. The action in THE EQUALIZER isn’t terrible. By 2014 we had moved on from the shaky cam nightmare of the 2000s. But still, THE EQUALIZER’s action is not as easy to follow. We’re meant to think that Denzel Washington can take down a room full of Russian thugs in 30 seconds. But we don’t really see that happening. A lot of times the edit cuts away right at the moment of impact instead of showing the moment of impact. The action is edited in a way to obscure whether it’s Denzel or a stunt double performing the action. There’s nothing inherently wrong with stunt doubles! Not every action star needs to be like Keanu Reeves or Tom Cruise. But there are ways to keep the action legible on screen without relying on heavy edits or extreme close ups.
2) The story is bland. What makes the story in THE EQUALIZER bland and unengaging is that the audience isn’t given enough reason to really truly care about Denzel’s character or Chloë Grace Moretz’s damsel in distress. The oldest criticism in the book is that the story tells instead of shows. That applies here. We are told that Denzel has a dead wife but we are not truly shown the pain he is in nor if it’s still affecting his psyche. If anything, it seems like Denzel is doing just fine. He’s mentoring his coworkers and helping out in other ways before he starts helping out with his fists and guns.
I don’t mean to suggest that THE EQUALIZER is a bad movie. It’s perfectly fine and serviceable. It’s the type of movie that does great on daytime cable television. The point is that it’s almost impressive how THE EQUALIZER feels like a well-oiled machine of an average American action movie. You’ve seen THE EQUALIZER before even if you’ve never seen it. In contrast, JOHN WICK was a movie that featured novel choreography, cinematography, and storytelling to propel the genre forward.
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