As Indians, we are always comparing how good Hollywood action films are in comparison to the Bollywood counterparts. However, we never compare how good or how bad the stories are in these H-Town actioners. Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse is a classic example.
Michael B Jordan is one of the best action stars we have seen coming in recent years. He’s got the physicality, he’s got the moves, and he’s got the brooding looks to pull off something like this. He excels in every way possible. I agree this doesn’t have the high-flying action like Black Panther, but it’s no less even. The stunts he does are really breathtakingly crafted and tailor-made to perfection.
Besides him, only Jamie Bell and Guy Pearce stand out with their performances. Jamie Bell has layered his performance so well that you are left confused for the entirety of the film whether he’s the good guy or the bad guy. That’s a very tricky line to walk on, but he manages to get that balance perfectly. Guy Pearce would surprise you. You are left wondering why an actor as talented as him would do such a small part in this movie, but by the time the climax unfolds, you are left in awe of his performance for having kept such a great poker face throughout.
The other actors like Jodie Turner-Smith, Luke Mitchell, Jack Kesy, Brett Gelman, and Colman Domingo don’t have enough screen time. A huge shortcoming of the film is not giving Lauren London more screen space. Someone with so much talent gets totally wasted in just a couple of blink-and-miss scenes. However, the biggest letdown of the movie is the direction by Stefano Sollima and the writing by Taylor Sheridan and Will Staples.
When you are adapting a book like Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, which has been quite a popular book in the franchise, you are supposed to make sure you stick to the book’s plot and just build on it. However, here they’ve tried to build on the book’s story a bit too much, and therefore, the screen adaptation doesn’t seem to have a story as such. It seems like a bunch of action sequences all sewn together.
This is basically the problem with most of Hollywood’s action films. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, whose films are actually action films with comic heroes, is the only exception that has managed to have a strong storyline always. The rest of the action films always end up being high-class action sequences all strung together in order to make a movie. The Expendables has been doing it for over three sequels, and now we have another franchise in the making doing so with Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse. I don’t have an iota of doubt about the action sequences, but the little bit of story that you see is done to death.
If you are an action aficionado, then only go ahead to watch Without Remorse, otherwise, it’s TOTALLY AVOIDABLE. I am going with 1.5 stars.
Title: Without Remorse
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Guy Pearce, Lauren
Director: Stefano Sollima
Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Rating: 1.5
