‘Jack Reacher: Never Go Back’ Doesn’t Hit as Hard as Last Time

Since Tom Cruise didn’t match the hulking stature of Lee Child’s pulp novel character Jack Reacher, fans of Child’s books scoffed at the idea of Cruise in the role. But then Jack Reacher hit theaters, and proved to be a rather effective action flick, greatly aided by the work of writer-director Christopher McQuarrie. With McQuarrie continuing to work with Cruise on the Mission: Impossible movies, director Edward Zwick steps behind the camera for Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, a modestly entertaining sequel that is over-reliant on the ample charms of its star to compensate for a rather predictable story.

When we’re reunited with Jack Reacher (Cruise), he’s sitting alone at a counter in a dingy roadside diner. The local police arrive to find a number of men writhing in pain on the pavement outside, the handiwork of Reacher. This former Major in the Army takes his brand of vigilante justice on the road, and is breaking up a ring of kidnapping and selling illegal immigrants that is run by the officers ready to arrest him for assault. Aiding Reacher on his vigilante missions is Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders), who only knows him through their telephone calls that follow his successful missions.

Reacher travels to Washington, D.C. for a face-to-face meeting with Major Turner, he’s met with a number of unpleasant surprises. First, Major Turner has been charged with espionage and has been stripped of her command as she awaits trial. Secondly, Reacher is shocked to learn that he’s being sued for paternity by the mother of Samantha Dayton (Danika Yorosh), though Jack has no recollection of the girl’s mother. Obviously, Jack Reacher has stumbled onto a massive conspiracy within the corridors of power, one that involves a military contractor worth billions and their relentless henchman (Patrick Heusinger).

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back starts out strong enough, establishing its characters and the initial threads of the deadly, albeit unoriginal, conspiracy. It doesn’t take long for the screenplay adaptation of Child’s novel (by Zwick and co-writers Marshall Herskovitz and Richard Wenk) to fly off the rails with its inclusion of the ridiculous subplot of Reacher’s possible parentage of Samantha. There’s not a single original element to this aspect of the story and will unfold almost entirely as expected with the lone exception of a laughably absurd scene where Samantha goes in hiding at the nicest private school ever for all of five minutes.

While the central conspiracy at the heart of the film isn’t very imaginative, the chemistry between Tom Cruise and Cobie Smulders is enough to gloss over those deficiencies. They bring a subtle comedic dynamic to the situations and each character is more than capable to hold their own when it comes to fisticuffs. Each dispenses their fair share of broken bones and bullet wounds to various anonymous bad guys. What Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is really missing is a villain worth a damn. Patrick Heusinger’s nameless henchman has no personality or motivation aside from a lust for killing. There is at the very least a big bad at the top of this vast conspiracy, but he’s a broad caricature that is barely given an introduction so it’s just a big reveal that feels entirely minor. Nothing in the movie even remotely challenges the menace that Werner Herzog brought to his character in the first film.

The action of Jack Reacher is for the most okay, though Edward Zwick sometimes makes some bewildering decisions when it comes to lighting, edits, and camera angles in some of these fight scenes. Whereas the concise action of the first film elevated the material, the action of Never Go Back rivals the screenplay in its erratic construction – effective in spurts and out of control in equal measure. What’s odd about this particular movie is the way it feels that the typically gung ho Cruise seems to be pulling his punches, never bringing that level of incredible physicality and stunt work that the actor has become closely associated with.

Considering how much I loved Jack Reacher, I entered Never Go Back with a level of optimism. But the movie is just a mixed bag that works okay half of the time and is unimaginative dreck the other half. Despite its numerous flaws, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back left me mildly entertained throughout. Much of the credit as to why there’s anything that work in the film is directly attributable to the natural charisma of Tom Cruise. Edward Zwick seems out of his element in making a pure action movie, which goes a long way to explain why the bone-shattering punches of Reacher don’t seem to land with the same impact as last time.