Without Remorse

Tom Clancy's films (as of late) are on the struggle bus. 

Weirdly, with Jack Ryan now on Prime Video as a television series (and a pretty damn good one at that), they're left to try and take Tom Clancy's vast span of characters and create new films. 

The Clancy "world" has always been an interesting one to me mainly because of their connection to videogames. Obviously there's the novels that inspired all of this, but the Tom Clancy fame owes a lot (perhaps "most) of itself to the gaming industry. Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six come immediately to mind, with the former producing some of the best stealth videogames in history (ahem...and where is my Splinter Cell movie?!? And where's another game, dammit?!!). Then you have more recent entries like The Division - which will apparently be a film at some point - and it's easy to see why the Tom Clancy name carries weight still, even when these movies may be subpar. The games are huge (Rainbow Six Siege is one of the premier competition shooters over the last 5 years) and it would lend itself to think the films could be too. 

But alas, this Amazon Prime original, starring Michael B. Jordan has its special moments, but strangely abandons anything that made it unique in the final 30 minutes to be a good, but forgettable attempt at revitalizing the brand on the silver screen. 

To be fair, Without Remorse was really impressing me for the first substantial bit of its runtime. It was violent, the plot goes quite dark, a particular interrogation is brutal, and a sequence with a plane is riveting. A lot of this is bolstered by the presence of Michael B. Jordan. Despite being written like a typical man-on-a-revenge mission, he brings a little more swagger and intensity to key scenes. When comparing to other action heroes, he only falls short likely from tenure but if there's enough success here (unlike with the last reboot, Shadow Recruit) then Jordan is one of the features they should certainly keep. The rest of the cast is impressive in name, with Guy Pearce and Jamie Bell having key roles, but again, they're all written so generically that it's hard to say they do well and rarely do they elevate the material. Even Pearce, who's usually someone that can make a character more than it is, just feels hollow as a straight-laced government man.

"White sheets?!? You know I HATE white sheets!!"

"Dude, get over it. Lots of
people have white sheets..."

Similar to some Clancy novels (and Shadow Recruit as an easy example), Without Remorse also ends on a whimper, almost like it doesn't quite know how it wants to end, but that it knows there are loose ends to take care of. From a logistical standpoint, the ending makes sense, it's just tame from what came before it and too dragged out, leaving a film that started and maintained intensity out to dry. It at least sets up more movies, but think about your favorite Mission Impossible or James Bond flick...not many have their final 30 minutes orchestrated as primarily talking with a touch of violence. It's usually the most bombastic segment of the film (sometimes to their own hindrance, but that's a discussion for another day). 

Luckily, Without Remorse has some entertaining segments that suggests there could be something special here. There's a distinct brutality - especially early on - that makes this like a more militarized/realistic John Wick. John Kelly (Jordan) can effectively get answers from people. The aforementioned interrogation scene has him shooting a man in the knee and the shoulder without a second thought and without the film making a big deal out of it, driving home the point further that Kelly means business (on top of some other elements about said interrogation I won't spoil). Similarly, it feels like the film doesn't pull its punches much until there's more generic action at the end and there's even a well-crafted CGI-heavy scene that did it for me. As a sum of its parts, Without Remorse is a good/sometimes decent revenge thriller, but individually it has certain scenes that are great. 

I'd love to see Michael B. Jordan get his own action series because he's going to be a special talent for a long time. He's the best part about Without Remorse and aside from a handful of scenes, it's another generic [film] attempt at Tom Clancy's novels. Perhaps the next film can steer away from the novel sequel, Rainbow Six, and get some talented writers/filmmakers to create a wholly original story with these characters. As it stands now, I'll stick to the Jack Ryan show and especially the videogames. But...for real...where's my f**king Splinter Cell film?

CONS

• Lacks any distinct/memorable filmmaking approach. This is a series of scenes stitched together. The editing is "fine", the original score is "fine", and the cinematography is "fine". So right off the bat you have key areas where the film could have been better
• Whimper of an ending that seems to suck the excitement out of the room
• Generic characters without much depth. The rest of the cast can't do much with them
• Final 30 minutes is uninspiring action and/or slow ending

PROS

• Michael B. Jordan is a strong presence and should continue to keep the role of John Kelly should this series continue (or crossover w/ John Krasinski?)
• There are several moments where the film is operating at a "great" level. The front half is exciting, brutal, violent and has some memorable elements
• Interesting story. Nothing you haven't heard before, but still progresses well with apt twists/turns
• There are special elements to build off

Rath's Review Score | 6.5/10