Jack Reacher: Never Go Back: Review

I'm a big fan of Tom Cruise. I'm a big fan of Christopher McQuarrie who directed the first Jack Reacher. So I enjoyed the first Jack Reacher for the most part. I thought the trailers for this movie looked really good. But I was worried about Christopher McQuarrie not directing this one. However, he did produce this movie with Tom Cruise. Apparently, producers don't have a lot of say in the creative process. Because I don't think that Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie could possibly think this movie was good. How does Steven Spielberg producing the Transformers movies not make a difference?

Something I liked about the first Jack Reacher was that it had a really great plot - within 2 minutes you are hooked. This one has a plot that isn't ANYWHERE near as interesting as the first movie. Nothing with the story grabs you nearly as well. This story is a story we've seen hundreds of times in different movies. The movie didn't even have a good villain like the first movie did. This movie is so dang predictable. There are scenes that didn't make any sense to me. There's a scene with Jack Reacher beating a guy up in a bathroom on an airplane and somehow nobody heard the beating and didn't do anything. We'll be in a quiet moment and then suddenly we'll jump right into a scene with Jack Reacher and Turner (played by Cobbie Smulders) doing their action hero running. The editing was really bad in some scenes. Some really bad dialog. The acting is rough. Everyone except Tom Cruise is either okay or really bad. The camera work was a bit rough sometimes. The music tries so hard to make some really boring and predictable scenes interesting and it just feels dumb.

I have 3 really big problems with this movies. The first is that the trailer shows way too much of the fun in this movie. Trailers really frustrate me. Trailers are made by those annoying cash grabbing people at movie studios that will do whatever it takes to get you into the theater. So with this, they show a little bit of everything. There were awesome moments from the trailer that aren't even in the movie. I think that if I hadn't watched the trailers that I would have enjoyed the movie more. When something awesome was about to happen I knew it was coming. I don't want to experience the movie in the trailer. I knew all the fun was over when I had seen everything that I saw in the trailer.

The second really big problem I had with this movie was that the character Jack Reacher is nearly nothing like he was in the first movie. In the first movie, he was a drifter and loner who goes wherever and does whatever he wants and does not give a crap about anyone. He's all over the place being a detective essentially. Now in this movie, he's not solving anything. He's just protecting people and not ever leaving them. He's on the run with Turner (Cobbie Smulders) and doesn't ever leave her side. So now there's nothing special about the character Jack Reacher. Which brings me to my final and biggest problem with this movie.

There's a character named Samantha who's played by Danika Yarosh. I hate this character and I can't stand how terrible this actress was. Samantha ends up tagging along with Jack Reacher and Turner (Cobbie Smulders), for a reason I won't spoil. But she's a very annoying and stupid kid who makes me furious. We spend so much time in the movie watching her mess stuff up. She had no reason to be in this story. At one point the bad guys track her because she's using her credit card to get room service even though Jack Reacher told her not to. She keeps trying to leave Jack. And she complains about not being able to use her phone. I wish that character would have been deleted from the movie or would have died 5 minutes in. She slows everything down. And the actress is so terrible. So this dumb character makes a team of 3 with one guy and one girl and a kid. So this stupid character turns these characters into a family essentially. There are scenes with Jack Reacher bringing home food for them and Turner and Samantha are having girl talk. And another scene where Jack and Turner are arguing like a married couple about who should stay with Samantha. They've turned Jack Reacher into a family man. So the movie should just be called Jack Reacher & Family. WHYYYYY?!?!?!?!?!

So let me finish my review of this frustrating movie. So because of all the stupid family man scenes, it's very refreshing to get back to Jack Reacher beating the crap out of people. So that brings me to the action. The fight scenes that I didn't know were coming (which is very few) were pretty good. They're not incredible. Except for the final fight scene which was incredible. But of course, they instantly start doing family man scenes again. There are some cool lines from Jack Reacher. The sound effects were really good in the action scenes. So overall I think this movie has very little good in it. I would like a third Jack Reacher film because I want to give them a chance to get it right. It doesn't come anywhere close to the first Jack Reacher. Which is a shame because I love Tom Cruise and I love Christopher McQuarrie and I was excited about this movie. So unless you absolutely HAVE to see a movie in the theater and you've already seen The Accountant and The Magnificent Seven three times then I don't recommend this movie. If I haven't yet convinced you not the see this movie listen to what my friend Gabe thought of this movie "The motion picture Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is a small step above most Friday night Hallmark movies but far below the Trinity Broadcasting Networks Left Behind 2: Tribulation Force. Rather than seeing this film I highly recommend that you get your affairs in order and then wrap your lips around a muffler".