Is Tom Cruise losing his Midas touch? His films in the recent post have not been anything great to write home about. His popularity, partly because of his glorious career in the 1990s and partly because of the insane money that his Mission Impossible franchise makes every time a sequel comes out, remains intact. But sadly his choice of films make even the earnest fans yawn.
A new addition to the yawn list is director Edward Zwick’s Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. A sequel to Jack Reacher which released in 2012, the film has Cruise playing a mysterious former army man – the sort who has no home, no family and yet fights the bad guys to save the world. Based on Lee Child’s book by the same name, the film begins several years after the first film ended. Reacher finds himself going back to his old workplace to meet Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) who he has befriended in the past weeks while working together. Reacher though is in for a surprise when he finds out that Turner is in jail on charges of espionage. Being the do-gooder, Reacher takes it upon himself to find the truth behind the case and is convinced that Turner has been framed.
In the middle of hunting for Turner, he may also have a 15-year-old daughter Samantha, who now lives in a foster home. Circumstances make Reacher, Turner and Samantha come together and soon they are on the run while almost half of American army goes on a nearly witch hunt looking for these ‘fugitives’.
Innumerable car chase sequences, mindless action sequences and logic defying stunts make the rest of the film. At numerable points one can easily predict what is going to happen next – some of the twists seem forced into the narrative making Jack Reacher: Never Go Back a very predictable affair.
Cruise on his part plays the unemotional, non –committal Jack Reacher almost effortlessly but perhaps the actor also appears a tad bit bored in some scenes. Cobie Smulders who the world knows as the vivacious Robin from How I Met Your Mother, dresses down and underplays her character of an army officer seeking justice for herself. The desperation to clear her name doesn’t quite come across well and the Smulders ends up putting a half-hearted attempt in the film.
When the audience start second guessing a thriller- it means the film lacks any kind of thrills and that’s why Jack Reacher: Never Go Back makes for a very dull watch.
Ratings: 2/5
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