TWO films in, the “Jack Reacher” franchise appears to be no threat to “Mission: Impossible” as everyone’s choice for Tom Cruise’s best vehicle. “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” is always faintly diverting but never particularly engrossing, putting the venerable movie star through his paces without really asking much of him.

    Cruise plays Reacher, a former high-ranking officer in the U.S. military police who walked away from the job to become a roaming vigilante bringing justice to those in need. On a trip to Washington, D.C., he learns that the woman who replaced him, Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders), has been court-marshalled, accused of espionage in the deaths of two American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. Believing she’s innocent, Reacher frees Turner, sending them on a quest to uncover what really happened while the authorities give chase.

    “Never Go Back” serves as a reunion between Cruise and his “Last Samurai” director Edward Zwick, who takes over for “Jack Reacher” filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie. Unfortunately, Zwick brings only a workmanlike professionalism to this adaptation of the Lee Child novel. In keeping with this franchise’s small-scale ambitions, “Never Go Back” plays like a cut-rate “Jason Bourne” or “Mission: Impossible” movie, delivering action-movie thrills on a relatively miniscule studio budget. As a result, there’s a vaguely generic tone to the proceedings, Zwick producing the expected amount of chase scenes and fight sequences without much flair or style.

    In theory, that stripped-down approach should only help amplify Cruise’s considerable charisma and intensity. But for all his ability to command the screen, the actor has yet to figure out what, if anything, is especially compelling about this character. Whereas the first film gave Reacher a chance to show off his sleuthing abilities in order to solve a mystery, “Never Go Back” is lighter on investigative work, instead trying to crack the loner’s guarded interior world.

    This is done mostly through the introduction of Samantha (Danika Yarosh), a bratty 15-year-old who Reacher discovers may be a daughter he never knew he had. “Never Go Back” suggests that, despite his wisecracking, lone-wolf demeanour, Reacher finds himself re-evaluating his life after learning this bombshell, but Yarosh so overdoes her character’s hard-edged cynicism that the two actors fail to establish any sort of rapport. That’s no small problem considering that her safety becomes an important on-going plot point once a nameless assassin (Patrick Heusinger) starts pursuing Reacher, Turner and her from D.C. to New Orleans.

    As in the first film, “Never Go Back” creates a little grownup sexual tension between Reacher and his female co-star. Rosamund Pike’s icy lawyer is replaced by Smulders’ no-nonsense cop, and again the movie puts the characters in close-quarters situations where the possibility always exists that their uneasy partnership might dovetail into steamy romance. In both movies, the filmmakers have some fun denying audiences the obligatory love scenes, teasing us without any payoff.

    A movie like this requires an enthralling villain, and unlike the intriguing stunt casting of documentarian Werner Herzog in the first film, “Never Go Back” is saddled with dull baddies, whether it be Heusinger’s dreary killer or Robert Knepper as a shadowy general whose sneering tone quickly indicates he’s not to be trusted. The mystery at the heart of “Never Go Back” never proves captivating, and a few revelations along the way have little impact. Even Cruise’s usual urgency feels a bit lethargic. “You’re very intense,” another character observes about Reacher. Yes, but he’s not much fun.

    The movie is now being screened in Shenzhen.

    (SD-Agencies)