‘Without Remorse’ Review: Without Any Substance

I can’t help but feel like all of Tom Clancy’s stories can be boiled down to a handful of Mad Libs that simply exchange one character, location, triggering death, etc. for another. They all feel like your generic military operations involving espionage, double crossing, and top tier soldiers. Without Remorse is no exception. Michael B. Jordan gives a convincing enough performance, but it’s nowhere near enough to save the film from being almost immediately forgotten.

Elite SEAL team operator John Clark (Michael B. Jordan) has just finished his last mission rescuing a CIA agent from ex-Russian military forces and decides to retire and spend some much needed time with his pregnant wife who is just about due to give birth to their baby. That all unfortunately comes to an end when a well trained group of soldiers break into his house to kill him. While he barely survives, his wife and unborn baby are murdered. With nothing left to lose, John returns to duty to find the ones responsible and bring them to justice.

Without Remorse feels as generic as it gets as it goes from one plot point to the next while rarely taking a foot off of its predetermined path. Michael B. Jordan is a great John Clark and has the talent and physique for the part. It’s just that the role itself is rather boring and dull. Like John Wick, he’s a man who has everything taken away from him and sets out for revenge, no matter the cost. Only there’s no secret organization of assassins to keep things interesting; it’s just your standard military operations.

The action scenes themselves are fine and do offer up a small dose of adrenaline to keep the film pushing forward. Still, it moves at a slogging pace. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Tom Clancy film without some deception and double crossing, and Without Remorse is pretty transparent with its plot. Nothing really comes as a surprise. Nothing really grabs your attention. Everything is just going through the motions until the end credits roll and they tease a potential sequel.

Without Remorse is without any substance. It’s a shell of an action film that delivers a few intense moments with nothing else in between. If you’ve seen any of Tom Clancy’s previous film adaptations, or any military action film in fact, you’ve likely already seen all Without Remorse has to offer.