Directed by:
Edward ZwickCinematography:
Oliver WoodComposer:
Henry JackmanCast:
Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders, Robert Knepper, Aldis Hodge, Danika Yarosh, Patrick Heusinger, Holt McCallany, Christopher Heskey, Jason Douglas (more)VOD (5)
Plots(1)
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back follows the title character as he returns to Virginia to meet the head of his former unit. But she's missing, he's being charged with a crime committed nearly 20 years ago, and he may even have a daughter. Making things right will lead him on a cross-country chase to uncover the truth - and maybe even a family. (Paramount Pictures)
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The first installment struck me as a jacked-up, anachronistic, infantile, moronic bore in which nothing happened half the time. The reason I found the second part to be a successful and entertaining albeit silly adventure surprised me myself, so I'll write it out here as therapy. Because it's the added quasi-family aspect that finally confronts Reacher with some sort of problem that makes him have no time to just wink grandly into the camera at the viewer, who knows nothing can happen to him anyway because he's exactly what he always wanted to be in his fantasies. Whereas the first film threw problems in the hero's path that he is used to solving and was always the boss on his own turf, here his need to solve situations on his own and be responsible only for himself clashes with the need to push the cart together with his supposed daughter and the runaway major for whom he has an emotional weakness. So suddenly he is not the master of every scene, but rather a somewhat unhappy asocial whose whining that it can't be like this, that he is used to being a lone wolf, is actually a necessary apology for the macho first installment, where he gave everyone and everything a hard time. Despite this, he's still that conservative, dreamboat hero of dads raised on Bond movies, whose disjointedness and James Dean-esque loneliness as an American wanderer hitchhiking in a white T-shirt along Route 66 is inspiring in such a distant way that he belongs more in the realm of guy dreams than appealing to a change in lifestyle. Perhaps that's why the film received such unkind reviews around the world when two women and a kind of need for responsibility suddenly intruded on this purely male escapist concept. However, with Reacher still retaining its concept of old-fashioned retro, and therefore appealing to the 40+ audience more than any other contemporary mainstream film, some images of gender progressiveness must be appreciated. Namely, the most intense defusing of an adversary with a rubber hose is entrusted here to Cobie Smulders. Or the scene in the hotel room, where these beautiful, fit people move around in their underwear without arousing any interest, which no one even comments on, it's just taken for granted. A shocking situation for a post-Bond audience. A pretty boy and a pretty girl can be friends or partners. The last positive I need to highlight is the cleverly constructed script. It doesn't really matter what the movie is about, of course, but for example, almost every scene works with more than just one piece of information used to move the plot forward, but usually brings in two or more that will be capitalized on later. For example, the disarming of the two mercenaries outside the diner not only brings the hero information about the organization they work for, but the bruised knuckles from that conflict also serve as major evidence later on to get him arrested. The bond between the Major and Reacher's "daughter" is also built through one teaching the other how to dodge a bullet, both of which we know will eventually be capitalized on later in the story.
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In my case, the fact that Cobie Smulders appears here helps a lot, as I really like her and always enjoy seeing her. It's quite action-packed, Tom Cruise doesn't seem to lose anything with age, or at least it's presented in a way that it looks like he doesn't lose anything. However, it is still a nice thriller mainstream.
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Zwick took it differently and badly. He seems to have abandoned the main strengths of the first one and serves us a second story of an agent with a mysterious past with a minimal portion of insight, which, however, does not so much play the main role, but only in details dilutes the damn serious note, which is itself the biggest criminal cliché in recent times. Unfortunately, even the screenwriting and framing of the story is first-rate Hollywood cynicism and dullness. In other words, you get all the ills that scripts for ordinary action films have, and as a result, all the twists and attempts fizzle out in the end. It's partly saved by the usually top-notch action Zwick has always been good at, but you'll still miss the slow, frantically unedited brawl from the first episode. Cruise is great, the family element is questionable and brings down the overall rating. After the first one, which caused a solid fan breakdown and there was talk of another agent like Bond and Hunt, came a cold shower and who knows what will happen with the third film.
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The first film definitely has its issues (the first half without tension, a number of unexplained things at the end), but so does this one, so I did not really notice any major qualitative drop. Perhaps only Kreamer's musical motif was a bit lacking for me, and the main villain could have been more charismatic. However, Tom Cruise is still convincing, Edward Zwick knows how to do the action and the other scenes, and that made me like the final restaurant unraveling in addition to the night shootout.
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This is a confirmation of the preconception that Zwick has a mastery of kitschy, visually-based, epic stories, but in terms of the thriller genre, he pretty much misses the mark with everything. The first half-hour is pure goodness, as Jack Reacher rides the wave of comedy, with Cruise acting with gusto and outdoes every genre film of recent times with his wit. But when everyone gets serious, when the parental dilemma and the criminal plot take over, Zwick proves pretty clueless, making it look like a bargain-basement spy drama that sort of carefully takes from everywhere but fails to find its own image all the way to the end. The first film was not great in terms of plot, but it captivated me with its unique old-world guy feel. This is filmmaking timelessness that would have fallen into the average in any decade. Much is actually saved by Cruise himself, who for perhaps the first time in his career is seen to have really aged. And surprisingly, also by Cobie Smulders, who has broken free from the snares of television and the comic book cult and projects a surprising amount of feminine charm and military charisma into an interchangeable character. I want a more distinctive director for the third film. PS: The airport check-in is a unique filmmaker lapse of logic.
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