Tom Clancy's Without Remorse Movie Review

Tom Clancy's Without Remorse (2021)

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Written by: Taylor Sheridan and Will Staples (screenplay by), Taylor Sheridan and Will Staples (screen story by), Tom Clancy (novel) 
Directed by: Stefano Sollima
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Jodie Turner-Smith, Jamie Bell, Guy Pearce
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
John Clark, a Navy SEAL, goes on a path to avenge his wife's murder only to find himself inside of a larger conspiracy.

Verdict
It's definitely theater release quality, and while the action is more than sufficient I was hoping for more. The payoff for scenes doesn't always deliver on the setup. A few times I was ready for a lengthy, fun, or impressive action sequence and it never came or ended much quicker than expected. Many scenes setting up the plot are telegraphed which is difficult to avoid with a movie like this, but once this gets into the action it gets a bit more creative.
It depends.

Review
I've really enjoyed Taylor Sheridan's previous movies like Wind River, Hell or High Water, and Sicario: Day of the Soldado though I'd put Without Remorse on the low end.
Michael B. Jordan (Just Mercy, Black Panther) always provides a solid performance, though with an action movie much of that is linked to what happens on screen

Michael B. Jordan plays John Kelly.

This starts off with a military mission and the typical trope of a suit using the military but not revealing the whole truth. The mission goes sideways. I really don't like the setup. I expected a movie about a guy out for revenge, and we get that but it takes a while to get going. One of the guys on the original mission is told to take out the trash by his wife. I knew his fate then and there. It's easy to see where this is going, especially with how much this has played up John Kelly's (Michael B. Jordan) family. I'm not sure there's any other way into the plot, but if this is going to resort to tropes it needs to get through them quicker. The point of the movie is Kelly going vigilante

The CIA is involved. Ritter (Jamie Bell) is the suit from the first mission They don't want to get involved despite Russians killing Americans. To pursue this mission Kelly has to trust Ritter, which isn't his preference.

This has some cool ideas. Kelly breaks the law to get information from a Russian diplomat. I won't spoil it, but it's fun and creative. That lands Kelly in prison. The setup for the prison fight is a neat idea, but that fight ends rather quickly. I wondered how much of the plot is the book versus the script, and apparently they only share a title.

Kelly's team head to Russia. I was expecting an action scenes approaching The Raid, but despite the setup that never pans out. This is the penultimate moment of the movie, and I expected more. The climax to this movie felt completely underwhelming as Kelly gets no answers. There's more to the story, but this movie feels like it's scrambling to wrap it up. This does provide an ending, but it's kind of banal.

There is a scene after the credits I found by mistake, but it doesn't add much other than positioning for a sequel.