Summary
- Jack Reacher
failed to meet box-office expectations despite the star power of Tom Cruise. - The misguided sequel,
Never Go Back
, focused on family drama over action-thriller elements, disappointing fans and critics. - Director Edward Zwick took responsibility for the sequel’s failure, lacking the keen understanding of the franchise that Christopher McQuarrie possesses.
As a die-hard fan of Tom Cruise and the Jack Reacher series, I must admit that the release of “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” left me utterly disillusioned. Having grown up watching Cruise’s action-packed films, I was eagerly anticipating this sequel. However, the movie fell flat for me, mainly due to Edward Zwick’s misguided approach.
The main distinction between the Jack Reacher novel series and its movie versions lies in the choice of Tom Cruise to play Jack Reacher. In the books, Jack Reacher is described as a massive ex-military officer who wanders aimlessly, whereas Cruise, known for his handsomeness, doesn’t fit this physical description. Moreover, Cruise’s portrayal also strays significantly from author Lee Child’s initial concept of a rough and tough character.
Despite its modest earnings compared to Cruise’s other blockbuster hits, the first film found some success at the box office. Yet, it didn’t quite reach the heights of Cruise’s Mission: Impossible series and received only modest enthusiasm from both audiences and critics. Therefore, it was a bit unexpected when production on a sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, began in 2013.
Instead of saying “This turned out to be a mistake,” you could express it as: “Unfortunately, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back failed to live up to expectations.” In a more engaging manner, we can say that this sequel, although functional, appeared more like a polished CBS procedural pilot than a thrilling franchise-boosting sequel meant to elevate the film series. It seemed to lack the ambition and creative direction one would expect from such a film.
La secuela fue lanzada en 2016 y su fracaso tanto comercial como crítico puso un punto final abrupto a la serie de películas. Sin embargo, el único aspecto positivo de este fracaso fue que sirvió de inspiración para el reinicio de la franquicia en 2022 con la llegada de la serie de televisión Prime Video titulada Reacher, que desde entonces ha eclipsado a la serie de películas hasta hacerle parecer casi irrelevante.
Never Go Back Was the Wrong Choice for a Jack Reacher Sequel
The film “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” is adapted from the 2013 novel “Never Go Back”, the 18th book in the series. In this story, Jack Reacher finds himself on the run with an Army major falsely accused of espionage, and also dealing with a teenage girl who believes he’s her father. While this family aspect is not central to the novel’s main plot, the movie emphasizes the question of whether the girl, Samantha, is indeed Reacher’s daughter. The film explores their relationship more deeply than the book, which contrasts with Jack Reacher’s usual solitary character. This shift in his character dynamics, particularly the pairing with Major Susan Turner and the development of his relationship with Samantha, deviates from his traditional lone-wolf persona, a trait that was not yet fully established in earlier stories to allow for such a change in a sequel.
In a more casual and straightforward manner:
The Jack Reacher Sequel Needed Christopher McQuarrie
Since Christopher McQuarrie, who helmed the first Jack Reacher movie, had prior engagements preventing him from directing the sequel, Tom Cruise handed the reins to Edward Zwick instead. Previously, Zwick worked with Cruise in the critically and commercially successful 2003 film, The Last Samurai. Unfortunately, Zwick’s misinterpretation of the franchise and its key demographic led to an inconsistent tone that left viewers disappointed.
Rather than predominantly concentrating on the high-octane aspects of the original, Zwick chose to center the sequel around family dynamics, particularly his complicated relationship with a young girl who could be his daughter. This narrative direction was influenced by the 1973 film “Paper Moon,” where Ryan O’Neal and his real-life daughter Tatum O’Neal portrayed characters with a similar dynamic during the Great Depression. In his memoir, “Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions,” published in 2024, Zwick acknowledged that the sequel’s underperformance was largely due to his own decisions.
“The movie ‘Jack Reacher: Never Go Back’, released in 2016 by me, didn’t perform well at the box office. I believe it was my mistake to assume that blending elements of Jack Reacher with ‘Paper Moon’ would appeal to audiences, when what they actually wanted was more action, or ‘red meat’.”
As a film enthusiast, I firmly believe that the sequel could’ve shone brighter had it not been for the original material’s shortcomings. However, McQuarrie’s deep grasp of the action-thriller genre and his exceptional portrayal of the character, as demonstrated in his masterful direction of Jack Reacher, would have undeniably added depth to the sequel. Unfortunately, while Zwick directed with competence, there seemed to be a lack of passion, as if he wasn’t truly invested in the franchise, possibly because he wasn’t a fan from the start.
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back Is One of Tom Cruise’s Biggest Failures
Although the movie “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back,” earning approximately $162.1 million with a production cost of $60 million, wasn’t catastrophic financially on its own, the underperformance at the box office, coupled with poor audience and critical reception towards the film, ultimately led to the demise of the film series. For Tom Cruise, this film represented his lowest-grossing movie since the 1999 psychological drama “Eyes Wide Shut” and currently ranks as Cruise’s second-lowest-earning starring film over the past two decades, trailing behind the 2017 action comedy “American Made.”
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back is now available on Netflix.
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2024-08-09 04:31