'Without Remorse' review: Watered-down Tom Clancy

Courtesy of Amazon Studios

There are things to like in the new film “Without Remorse,” based on the popular Tom Clancy novel, but those moments are surrounded by huge portions of clumsy editing and A-B-C storytelling that will make you want to check out before the end credits roll. What makes this even more frustrating is seeing lead actor Michael B. Jordan (“Black Panther”) clearly giving 110% and everyone else phoning it in.

Jordan stars as John Kelly, a U.S. Navy SEAL spun off from Tom Clancy’s “Jack Ryan” series of books and sparsely used in earlier movies like “Clear and Present Danger” and “The Sum of All Fears.” “Without Remorse” is an origin story for Kelly and we see his brawn at work from the film’s first scene as he leads a team of SEALs to rescue a CIA operative from Russian ex-military forces.

The mission is a temporary success until the Russians seek revenge by killing off all SEALs held responsible. The men are hunted down one by one in a montage weirdly reminiscent of the Arnold Schwarzenegger cheese-fest, “Commando.” But unlike the 1985 film, the bad guys don’t kidnap the hero’s daughter, instead they accidentally kill Kelly’s pregnant wife and that’s enough for this SEAL to go underground and seek his own brand of bloody justice.

Jordan stars as John Kelly, a U.S. Navy SEAL spun off from Tom Clancy’s “Jack Ryan” series of books and sparsely used in earlier movies like “Clear and Present Danger” and “The Sum of All Fears.” “Without Remorse” is an origin story for Kelly and we see his brawn at work from the film’s first scene as he leads a team of SEALs to rescue a CIA operative from Russian ex-military forces. The mission is a temporary success until the Russians seek revenge by killing off all SEALs held responsible. The men are hunted down one by one in a montage weirdly reminiscent of the Arnold Schwarzenegger cheese-fest, “Commando.” But unlike the 1985 film, the bad guys don’t kidnap the hero’s daughter, instead they accidentally kill Kelly’s pregnant wife and that’s enough for this SEAL to go underground and seek his own brand of bloody justice.

Those set pieces of revenge include a prison fight and a fiery interrogation inside an armored car, amounting to a short highlight reel in a by-the-numbers story. The film’s running time is also to blame, at almost two hours “Without Remorse” has a lot of unnecessary padding that takes the air out of its best scenes. Reliable actors like Jamie Bell (“Billy Elliott”), Jodie-Turner Smith (“Queen and Slim”) and Guy Pearce (“Memento”) do the exact opposite here and cash easy paychecks. They each play government agents who may or may not be on Kelly’s moral side but don’t worry, the generic story structure will make it easy for you to guess which side they’re really on.

“Without Remorse” is a reunion of sorts for director Stefano Sollima and co-writer Taylor Sheridan since they both worked on “Sicario: Day of the Soldado.” While the latter film isn’t perfect, it’s vastly better than this latest output. There’s even a mid-credits scene that laughably sets up a future franchise in the most forehead-slapping way possible. Since this is an Amazon Studios release, I half-expected John Krasinski to show up and keep things in the “Jack Ryan” family but what we actually get is much worse than that. Inside the world of “Without Remorse” the character of John Kelly feels betrayed by his own government. But after seeing the finished film, actor Michael B. Jordan should feel betrayed by the filmmakers of this neutered mess. He clearly came to play in a movie that didn’t value his commitment and wanted to take the easy way out, making the end result a sad misfire.

Rating: C

“Without Remorse” is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.