These two movies will always be linked for me because there is a lot of common ground between them. They were both released in the fall of 2014, Equalizer in September, Wick in October. Both feature highly skilled badasses dispatching of Russian gangsters. They’re both “revenge movies“, wherein the main character is mad about something (usually a fallen or hurt loved one), and seek revenge against those responsible. After viewing each many times, it has become clear to me that John Wick is the far superior of the two, to the extent that if I see The Equalizer/Equalizer 2 on TV, I just wish it was Wick/2/3.
I don’t take any issue with people who like both movies. For a while, I myself, liked both movies. In fact, I saw The Equalizer first (in the theater even), and was obsessed with it. I was constantly trying to find decent copies of it to stream online, and even watched some rough cuts. I don’t recall the first time I saw John Wick, but it wasn’t in the theater. I liked both movies very much, but over time, The Equalizer is aging very poorly for me, and John Wick is aging better than the finest wine ever made. I recently had an argument over which movie was better, and I was surprised to hear that my opinion on this matter wasn’t just considered fact.
As noted before, I used to really like Equalizer. Sometimes in life, we like one thing, and then another similar thing comes along and changes our opinion of the first thing. Random example, maybe you grew up making grilled cheese sandwiches by putting the bread in a toaster, adding cheese, and then putting it all in the microwave. You were fine with this until you went to your friend’s house, and they just cooked a grilled cheese in the pan with butter, and it was ten times better. Maybe you met a girl in school and thought she was very pretty, until you found out that she had a brother who looked exactly like her, and it ruined it for you. I’m not saying you fell for the guy, but it was hard to look at the girl the same way after that. This is basically what happened with me and The Equalizer, I loved it, then it’s brother came along, and lessened my attraction to it.
So…what’s my reasoning for this opinion? Fair question, I have many reasons. Some reasons are more major, others are more specific:
Major reasons Wick is better
1) The World
The world in Equalizer is pretty regular. There is the Russian underground, and we see some of where they infiltrate regular society like in construction, etc, but all in all, the world looks very much like the world we know. John Wick, on the other hand, creates a whole world of underground assassins. They have their own hotels, currency, network, and rules. Although Wick lives in New Jersey, and spends a lot of time in New York City, we’re exposed to an entirely different society, which leads to a more interesting and new cinematic experience.
2) Self-awareness
John Wick seems to know what it is. There is an understanding that it is a straightforward action movie with a revenge plot line. No pretense about it. There are parts throughout the three movies where they poke fun at themselves. However, at the same time, this self-awareness does not mean that the movie isn’t trying. Instead, they take a straightforward premise, and incorporate high-level movie-making: good cinematography, the lighting/color choices, the fight choreography, and the ancillary details (like the hotel/world).
The Equalizer feels like it’s trying to go for something greater. The inciting incident in the plot, when Alina the prostitute gets beaten up by her pimp – the thing that makes Robert McCall (Denzel) decide he needs to act – doesn’t happen until 22 minutes into the movie. The movie spends the first 22 minutes trying to establish Robert McCall as this regular guy, who is really nice to his coworkers, trying to help one guy lose weight so he can be a security guard, etc. He can’t sleep, so he goes to a diner to drink tea at ~2 am and befriends a young prostitute who expresses that she does not want to be a prostitute, but rather a singer. He sees her pimp be a little rough with her, but not enough to do anything about it, until 22 minutes in! I could be overreaching, but it feels like it is trying to point out the inequities of society, and then McCall is to try and right the wrongs, because these people need someone looking out for them. It is related to my next reason…
3.) Hero vs Anti-hero
The first 22 minutes are basically spent trying to show us what a great guy Robert McCall is. It is too much time, as noted above, but perhaps more importantly, the movie hints that he wants to make up for sins of his past, but they tell us nothing of those sins. As best as we can tell, McCall just helps out those who are less fortunate. We’re supposed to love him and think he is an angel. Because of Denzel’s acting, we are able to fall for it a little bit, but watching the movie multiple times makes it harder.
John Wick is an anti-hero. Yes, he is the protagonist, and the character we care about the most, but there isn’t any confusion about whether or not John Wick was a good person; he was not. Similar to McCall, he has some regrets about his past and is trying to be better, but it is made very clear that in his past, he was the scariest assassin in the game, and he’s racked up quite a body count. They don’t spend several scenes trying to convince us to like Wick.
4.) The Fight Scenes
I don’t know how technically I’ll be able to speak about this, but the fight scenes in Wick are much better than in The Equalizer. The scenes in Wick have superior choreography, and the sequences last longer. The Equalizer has the enjoyable scene in the restaurant office where he kills all of the mobsters, and some good hand-to-hand combat vs those corrupt cops, but none of these even compare to Wick. The latter has several scenes that are longer, more evenly matched, and better-looking: the scene where the 13 assassins come to his house to kill him; the sequence at the bathhouse, and then the club; the hotel fight with Perkins; when he escapes the warehouse. The fight scenes are more enjoyable and more memorable.
Minor reasons that Wick is better
a) Sequels
This doesn’t speak to the original two movies, but the franchises as a whole. The Equalizer had a sequel that, in my opinion, was not very good. Wick has two sequels that are both awesome, in particular #2. The fact that they were able to go deeper into the assassin world, and up the action is impressive. There is a new story that is related to the events of the first one, but is separate. The Equalizer 2 is basically the same as the first movie. McCall is just the greatest guy ever, sticking up for people who need help. There is a government conspiracy, but it is not particularly interesting. I don’t know that the action sequences are any better either.
b) Dialogue
One advantage The Equalizer has over Wick is that Denzel is a better actor than Keanu. However, related to the above, Wick seems to know this, and they make the character of John Wick a strong, silent type. He doesn’t say much, which makes him cooler and more menacing. Denzel can deliver dialogue with the best of them, but they spend too much time with Denzel interacting with people to establish who he is in every day life. It slows the pace of the movie and wastes a lot of time. John Wick runs 1 hour and 41 minutes, The Equalizer runs 2 hours and 12 minutes.
c) The protagonist-victim relationship
John Wick’s wife dies, and leaves him a dog, which he receives the day of the funeral. Some punks break into his house to steal his car, and end up attacking him and killing his dog. Some people make fun of this as the “you killed my dog now I kill you movie”, but at least there’s an understandable connection worth avenging.
McCall goes to a diner late at night and develops a relationship with a young prostitute. They don’t know each other particularly well, he just feels bad for her situation, and knows that she is mistreated by her pimp. I understand that most people wouldn’t have the power to help in this situation, but prior to whoopin’ everyone’s ass, McCall offers the pimp $9800 cash, of his own money, for this girls freedom. It just seems a bit far-fetched.
d) The ending
The ending of Wick is strong, he takes out the head of the mob in a fight scene and that’s pretty much that. McCall ends up luring the Russian mob to his place of work, a hardware store, and booby-trapping the place so that he could take each guy out 1-on-1. It feels a bit like Home Alone, it takes a while, and is less enjoyable than just the straight up fight we have in John Wick.
e) The Equalizer is vaguely reminiscent of Man on Fire, which is better, and invites a bad comparison. We have a tendency to make relative comparisons, and MoF is another Denzel revenge movie except that there is a more believable relationship established with the little girl, who is kidnapped, and it is less about revenge than it is about finding her. Also, Denzel plays an alcoholic with demons from his time in combat. He is a bit tough with the girl at first, but she wears him down over time. The extra time taken to establish their relationship has a better payoff in MoF, and the anti-hero is preferable, in my opinion, than to the angel, Robert McCall.
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