Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

As I was watching the new Jack Reacher movie, I started to feel a strange disconnect from the film.  It wasn't thrilling me in any real way, even though it had all the standard chases, shootouts and reckless car driving that one expects in an action film.  It felt curiously muted, not confident like a thriller should be.  I couldn't put my finger on it, but then I think I stumbled upon the answer when I looked up who directed the film.

The director is Edward Zwick, and no, he's not a bad one.  He's done some films I've admired, such as 1986's About Last Night and Glory.  He's even worked with Tom Cruise before on The Last Samurai.  The thing is, he's not a fast-paced action director.  He specializes in emotion and character-driven films.  Put him at the helm of an action thriller, such as Never Go Back, and you get one that is mundane.  To be honest, I don't think there were many people gunning for a sequel to the 2012 film that featured Tom Cruise as the titular Reacher, an ex-Army Major who now serves mostly as a crime-solving drifter.  I remember enjoying the movie when I saw it back then, but I've honestly forgotten most of it.  That happens a lot when you see as many movies as I do.  For the sequel, I have a hunch there will be even less that I remember over time, because there's just so little to recommend.

This is as formulaic as an action film can get.  It does have some interesting ideas to it, particularly the notion that Reacher finds out he may or may not have a teenage daughter due to a past romantic fling.  The girl is Samantha (Danika Yarosh), and she's sarcastic and constantly seems to be getting on Jack's last nerve for most of the movie.  Their relationship throughout the film seems to hint at comic relief, but it never builds to any genuine laughs or emotion.  It's just another cog in the machine-like plot of the film.  Not even the action sequences manage to raise much excitement, as Zwick films them with so little energy and grace.  And then there's the strangest aspect about the film - The last hour or so is set in New Orleans, but given how bland the city comes across, it may as well have been filmed in a little backwater in Oklahoma.  If you film on location in a city like New Orleans, and you can't get any interesting shots, not even during a Halloween street parade that serves as the climax, you're not doing your job right.

Cruise is back as Jack Reacher, and this time he's trying to solve a mystery concerning pretty young female Army Major, Turner (Cobie Smulders), who took over his job after he left the military service.  When he arrives at the base to meet her for the first time, he finds out that she's been charged with espionage and is in prison.  Naturally, Reacher doesn't buy this, breaks her out of her cell, and the two set about proving her innocence.  Our two heroes, along with the teenage Samantha, must constantly stay ahead of contract killers who are out to prevent them from finding the truth behind some mysterious murders of military soldiers in Afghanistan.  The bad guys are led by Hunter (Patrick Heusinger), who creates an imposing presence as he tracks Reacher and the others down, but doesn't have much of a character to play, continuing the disappointing recent trend of uninteresting villains in recent action thrillers.

There's little sense of mystery in Never Go Back, and the action sequences never exactly thrill.  What does work is the relationship between Jack and Turner.  They get some good private scenes together, particularly an argument they have about who should go investigate a lead.  He wants her to stay behind.  She calls him out on being a sexist, since she basically has the same job he used to have when he was in the Army, and should be more than capable.  It's a good scene, and maybe if the film had centered on their relationship, it would explain Zwick's presence behind the camera, as he is experienced with these kind of emotional moments.  However, this aims to be an action film, and it falls short in just about every regard.  Yes, Cruise is doing his best here, but there is just no energy to the fights, nor to the mystery that is supposed to be driving the plot.  Aside from a couple performances, the movie largely feels phoned in.

All in all, the movie is perfectly watchable, but it's just not very fun.  Nothing impresses, and there's no action set piece or sequence that has us silently pumping our fist and saying, "Yes!", as it plays out.  Were it not for the connection to the earlier movie, I highly doubt anyone would give it a second thought.  This is one of those movies that seems destined to be forgotten after its opening weekend.

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