Amazon Prime continue their relationship with Tom Clancy source material, following the Jack Ryan TV series, Prime now brings you Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, introducing Clancy’s other big character John Kelly part of Rainbow Six SEAL team (That has featured in multiple games) to the cinematic world.
An elite Navy SEAL uncovers an international conspiracy while seeking justice for the murder of his pregnant wife in Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, the explosive origin story of action hero John Clark – one of the most popular characters in author Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan universe. When a squad of Russian soldiers kills his family in retaliation for his role in a top-secret op, Sr. Chief John Kelly (Michael B. Jordan) pursues the assassins at all costs. Joining forces with a fellow SEAL (Jodie Turner-Smith) and a shadowy CIA agent (Jamie Bell), Kelly’s mission unwittingly exposes a covert plot that threatens to engulf the U.S. and Russia in an all-out war. Torn between personal honor and loyalty to his country, Kelly must fight his enemies without remorse if he hopes to avert disaster and reveal the powerful figures behind the conspiracy.
Without Remorse is a generic action movie with decent stars and stamp of action thriller brand (Clancy). Other than that, the entire movie is instantly forgettable. Your typical you killed my wife/mother/brother/sister/dad/significant other (Delete as applicable) and I’m going to rip heaven and earth up to get my revenge, made famous back in the 80s by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s action movies and Charles Bronson in the Death Wish sequels. So nothing new here and for whatever reason the action just simply doesn’t ‘pop’.
The movie strays some way away from the source novel, as with most Clancy books, the plotting is so thick and heavy, you’d need to turn it into a TV mini-series to adequately transplant it faithfully. So while various sub plots have been eschewed from the movie for pacing reasons, whats left is entirely is once again generic.
Micheal B. Jordan however works with what he has and stands out head and shoulders above the rest of the cast. Jodie Turner-Smith & Jamie Bell do just fine, but that’s the issue here, everything is just fine and it doesn’t seek to be anything other than that. Plus how many times now does Guy Pierce turn up in the movie to be revealed as the villain? Is it written into all his contracts now?
As the first of possibly a series, this is certainly a perfunctory start point, however the bar is seriously going to need to be raised if it’s going to sustain any kind of audience retention.
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse is available on Amazon Prime Now
