If the Cold War was good for anything, it served as a boon to action movies — the kind where an enemy state could dispatch waves of spies, soldiers and weaponry to take on some of America’s biggest stars. Those films were perfect for a jingoistic “us vs. them” mentality that excused maximum carnage of faceless adversaries. Swaths of foot soldiers could be mowed down by muscular heroes and their massive guns, resulting in some of the most epic sequences within the annals of action filmmaking. “Without Remorse” is about a return to those days in many ways, but it also brings along many of those bygone hindrances. Every line is now a proclamation of badassery, and though the heroes aren’t invulnerable, their injuries are easily overcome and mere fodder for even bigger displays of their unmatched prowess. But while director Stefano Sollima delivers a good-looking movie with some well-staged action, much of the script feels like paint-by-numbers, which sucks out the excitement and intrigue.
Years after a team of Navy SEALs takes out a Russian arms dealer in Syria, the former members become targeted by an unknown entity. When one of those attempts strikes close to home for the squad’s chief, John Kelly (Michael B. Jordan), the soldier takes it upon himself to enact revenge on his attackers. Lt. Commander Karen Greer (Jodie Turner-Smith) wants to help Kelly, but she sees what this path of vengeance is doing to her friend. Meanwhile, a tug of war unfolds between the Secretary of Defense (Guy Pearce) and CIA agent Robert Ritter (Jamie Bell) over some intelligence information and who is responsible for which secrets.
Co-writer Taylor Sheridan (barely working from a novel by Tom Clancy) has a very strong track record. “Hell or High Water,” “Wind River” and “Sicario” are all clever takes on revisionist westerns that exist in morally hazy worlds where direct answers are rarely the complete picture. Likewise, Sheridan’s previous collaboration with Sollima on “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” is about multiple government agencies with competing goals and degrees of morality that’s not above a lot of bloodshed and civilian casualties. “Without Remorse” attempts to have a similar ambiguity, which is also keeping with the Tom Clancy trope of having enemies both foreign and domestic, but everything is telegraphed from the jump. The attempts to deliver twists and turns that make it all seem like a game of shadows is itself an obvious move where “Without Remorse” undoubtedly fails.
That’s not to say that the movie is without its merits. Despite being hampered by a well-worn script and overly dour mood, the actors acquit themselves well. Jordan is a beast in this role, with his outsized physique and athletic prowess proving formidable in every scene. He projects an intensity that is built on the fridging cliché, but the actor sells it as real and all-consuming. His rage is always under the surface, barely constrained as he goes about the tasks of dispatching his enemies with incredible precision. In Jordan’s hands, Kelly feels like a mash-up of John Wick and John Creasy from “Man on Fire” — an absolute force of nature who’s captivating to watch. Additionally, Bell is suitably aloof in his CIA turn, equal parts calculating and flippant, while Turner-Smith does excellent work navigating the (supposedly) murky waters of the military and covert ops worlds, trying to follow a moral compass that pulls in various directions.
Where the movie truly excels is its action scenes. The Tom Clancy brand has been affixed to military-themed video games for decades now, and many of the dynamic set pieces in “Without Remorse” feel inspired by the taut cutscenes and challenging levels of those games. Sollima deftly establishes the geography of the fights, only losing that thread when the soldiers themselves are uncertain from where their enemies are shooting. There are moments of quick cutting between action beats, but it never feels gratuitous or distracting, instead mirroring the frenetic chaos of the moment. The best fights and stunts aren’t as technically impressive as the large-scale gunfights, but there are smaller moments where Jordan faces off solo against multiple adversaries or has to accomplish some daunting task on his own.
The driving force of the story is a return to Cold War dynamics. That same narrative push is also evident in the storytelling tropes that the film embraces, like the ubermensch warrior who is saddled with the burden of being the only person capable of doing amazing things and dispatching the various wolves at the door. Despite its attempts to subvert expectations and utilize plot twists, there’s nothing surprising in the script. However, the spectacle of the elaborate action sequences, the dedication of the actors and the impressive combination of precision and brutality makes “Without Remorse” pretty entertaining. One can only hope that if the movie gets a sequel, the next film does away with the antiquated dialogue and plot mechanics in favor of focusing on the characters and action that make this one so compelling.
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Jodie Turner-Smith, Jamie Bell, Guy Pearce
Director: Stefano Sollima