That’s especially true of Reacher’s bone-crunching sadism, which he rains down on opponents with the wrath of a vengeful patriarch. Cruise registers as entirely comfortable with all the genre elements this story demands. Zwick livens up the tired material with tepid comedy - namely with a play family for Reacher in the form of an action-figure wife (Cobie Smulders) and a teenage daughter (Danika Yarosh) - but neither he nor Mr. The director Edward Zwick tends to sign his name to nominally more elevated material with lofty, serious themes and objectives (“Glory,” “Blood Diamond”). Cruise does what he can, mostly by cycling through his scowls as well as running, leaping and punching. In both movies, though, he’s little more than a furrowed brow and pummeling fist. He’s the kind of heroic question mark that works only if there’s enough star charisma or filmmaking to fill in the gaps.

(He does ride off in a white T-shirt.) All this is meant to make him seem mysterious, but mostly he comes off as a blank, without psychological or emotional depth. Reacher is a former military man, as he often reminds people, and unencumbered by home, companion, car, dog, backpack or even a change of clothes. Then again, reality doesn’t cut it in fantasies like this. It’s an ugly, pessimistic world overflowing with so much wrong that of course it has spawned a sequel with the same dreary beats. In the first movie, “ Jack Reacher” (2012), the menace begins with a multiple shooting that leads to a conspiracy, false charges against Reacher, a damsel in distress and swarms of villains. The creation of Lee Child, Reacher is one of those enigmatic, borderline mystical types who surface out of the haze to handle villainy with boundless intelligence, weapons mastery and annihilating violence. The appeal of Jack Reacher seems obvious but remains elusive onscreen. In recent years, only the apparently indestructible “Mission: Impossible” franchise has provided him with a steady vehicle for his talents as well as for a ride to box-office success. Cruise deserves better, as do his loyalists, who have stuck with him through the good and the bad, both in perfectly tailored roles that failed to impress audiences ( “Edge of Tomorrow”) and in roles that were unworthy of all his work and our love ( “Oblivion”).

“Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” is the second movie that Tom Cruise has starred in as this title character.

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