By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Edward Zwick
Cast: Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders, Aldis Hodge, Danika Yarosh, Patrick Heusinger and Holt McCallany.
Rating: Average
Tom Cruise is back in portraying ex major “Jack Reacher” in the sequel “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back”. This time the movie is directed by Edward Zwick, who’s most notable work are movies like “Glory”, “Legends of the Fall”, “Blood Diamond” and last year’s “Pawn Sacrifice” and this second part entertains.
Jack Reacher, goes back to Washington D.C but to find out that her friend Major Turner (Cobie Smulders) is under arrest for conspiracy of murder of two marine soldiers who were killed in combat in Afganistan.
At the same time, Reacher is wanted for the murder. Now both Reacher and Turner now are fugitives and will try to clear their names at any costs even if it means to put their lives in danger.
This second part of Jack Reacher like I previously mentioned it does keep the pace and entertains and I consider it a good action thriller film.
The script written also by Edward Zwick and Richard Wenk, who recently wrote “The Magnificent Seven” has some flaws and it becomes to predictable.
The major problem is the narrative by moments was too weak and Cruise´s portrayal of Reacher leads by moments to boredom.
There were other elements of the film that in my opinion didn´t work like the inclusion of a third character which is Samantha, portrayed by Danika Yarosh. I was never convinced with her performance and there could have been a better element in terms of narrative to make it work. An alternative it should have been a much darker past from Reacher.
In this sequel I also observed a major error in continuity and this is when one of the soldiers gets beat up by Jack Reacher in the following scene after he gets beat up he appears with one eye closed and in the following sequence his eye was as good as new. Let´s face it when you receive a punch in the eye it doesn´t heal that quickly.
The first Jack Reacher film was totally the opposite and not only was not predictable but the level of suspense was elevated on higer terms and the levels of progressive complications on the main character were marked. Most of the resolutions for Reacher’s character in this second part were very easy and I never saw a hard obstacle he couldn’t resolve.
I did like the chemistry between Crusie and Smulders which I think it does work and the action sequences were very well shot as well as all the fights that were envolved.
The opening of the movie were Jack Reacher is being arrested after a fight he has in a diner and two deputies arrest him is really well made and it was written with so much wit and humour that is one of the few scenes that works.
I was engaged and the movie entertained me, but at the same time I was expecting better things for “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” since the first film I enjoyed it even more than this second part but still I give a slight recommendation due to the problems that had on screen and some of the directing.