Jack Reacher Never Go Back (2016) Film Review

Jack Reacher Never Go Back (2016) Film Review

I saw Jack Reacher Never Go Back. I don't know how to explain it. Do you know how the first film felt like a action adventure mystery film trying to find the clues? Well in Jack Reacher Never Go Back I did not feel like that too much. I mean the mystery was there but it was not as strong of an emphasis like the first film. I am not sure what this film was but I guess I would classify it as a dysfunctional family chase, escape, and at the end coming together film just to separate to go on with their lives again at the end. The chemistry or back stories to get invested in the characters or victims were missing in Never Go Back.

The best parts of this film I thought were at the beginning and were the best parts shown in the trailers which I found disappointing. I was hoping that what I saw in the trailers would get expanded with more depth than what was depicted in the film.

I don’t think that there was any fault in acting or writing for this film. I think that any flaws in this film I would either credit towards Edward Zwick Directors choices on how the film was shot on when to do close ups and long shots, what was emphasized, editing choices to how the film was shot, scenes cut together. I don’t think that there was any fault in acting or writing but I would accredit to either directing choices, what was emphasized, editing choices to how the film was shot, scenes cut together, and edited together. For instance action scenes had too many close-ups instead of wide shots or not enough suspense. There were wide shots just before action starts; so no tension is created. Then when action starts there are lots of cuts of close-ups while action is occurring so it makes it difficult to tell when it is actors vs. stunt people doing the action. This film I also thought was too brightly lit or the colors depicted in this film were not used in a way to help create a particular atmosphere for the film. The way it was shot surprised me in that I felt underwhelmed by the action. Since Edward Zwick; the Director of the Last Samurai did Jack Reacher Never Go Back; my expectation was that I would have thought that the action shots should have stood out as more impressive than they depicted in this film.

This film had some good one liners; however nothing quiet stood out as significant that I have not seen before in some other franchise or film done better.

I believe that there were not enough surprises. There was something missing in the character relationships. For instance I felt like this film needed more back story to Agent Turner’s coworkers as far as the victims in a relationship so we feel more invested in the victims and agent Turner’s relationship with those characters to be able to understand the character who were killed but hardly anything was given on that. I would have liked to have seen Agent Turner at her job before we saw her arrested to get a understanding of what her job was like and relationship between her coworkers was prior to being arrested.

The villains were not developed well enough to care either way for them. The characters of Colonel Morgan, The Hunter, Colonel Moorcroft; all seemed like stereotypical depictions of military or villain characters that have been depicted in other films and shows. There was nothing that stood out as significant as far as something different I have never seen before in other films.

The beginning was good and the end chase scene on the roof of New Orleans was pretty good. The middle body to this film I think needed more work.

This had good lines but the action was not shot very well or long enough to stand out enough. Like the salt shaker scene in the trailer was too brief and needed more tension.

I laughed a few times; however this film was missing the vibe of the first film. I think that this film most of the stories significant parts stood out to the female leads and Jack Reacher himself did not stand out enough to care about his character enough with sympathy. I did not feel the danger in this film like I did in the first film since we saw Jack Reacher get significantly hurt in the first film unlike this film where until the end we often only saw the results of his wounds instead of him actually getting hurt.

I thought that that the Jack Reacher and Agent Turner getting on the bus to escape the military police chase was trying unsuccessfully to wink towards the first film. It did not stand out like the first film did.

In many ways I felt cheated by this film because the advertisements in the trailers showed all the good parts. I expected that I would see more depth to extend the scenes in the trailer or more stand out scenes like that seen in the trailers but those were the only scenes at the beginning and towards the very end but the middle was missing something. I feel as though the trailers advertised all the good parts. Also in the trailers I hoped that more explanation would be given to what was told in the film such as the story about Jack Reacher and the desk but nothing was expanded on that story. I hoped that there were going to be more stories by Jack Reacher talking to Agent Turner  or Samantha giving exposition on what Reacher had done while he was in the military or love relationships but instead others gave more stories than Reacher did in this film.

This film felt like a dysfunctional family film where family is always on the run to escape, hide, or chase the bad guys. It did not feel like a mystery. It was others who would give them information they needed or took from others rather than search himself.

What got me was how they threw away the phones that were in the system just to get new throw away phones yet never went to get new phones constantly threw the film.

This film bugged me in how much pick pocketing and theft of others belongings happened from all the main cast characters. It almost made it seem like they were saying it is alright to do that to get under the radar. But also showing how difficult it is since you will caught as seen by the credit card and phone scenes.

One thing I wish was developed further with a better resolution was the character Sergeant Leach. To me that relationship or dynamic seemed like such a great chemistry between Reacher and Leach. It looked like a back story was there but never explained. I wish that some sort or relationship or chemistry was developed or depicted at the end with Agent Turner.

For some reason I did not like the action scenes in how they were cut or shot because I felt like there were far too many close ups during the action and not enough wide shots. I think that wide shots were intentionally used before action started instead of using close ups before to create tension.

I hope that this is not the end of the Jack Reacher franchise since the first film was so good. I think that this film needed a different director to give a different kind of vibe to get you to care about the characters and film the action scenes.