Not half as good as some would say

Rating: 3/10 (26 April 2013)

When first looking at other reviews they seem to be either 9 out of 10's or 1 out of 10's - but after going through a couple of pages you then get the more realistic 3 or 4 out of 10 scores, which personally I would agree with.
There is no way in this world that this movie is an 8, 9 or 10, but at the same time 1 or 2 is a tad unfair.
Overall, I was very disappointed, I like Tom Cruise and I rarely think he does a bad movie. He's a good actor, although the roles he normally takes don't really show how good an actor he can be. Obviously, he is generally an action star and a big pull at the box office and that can be the only way this movie has exceeded its budget (albeit not by much) because it can't be because of his performance, the script or the film itself.
There has been much talk about the poor choice of actor to play Jack Reacher based on look and size. I haven't read any of the books so in a way I couldn't care, but it is a shame it has been commented on so much, as you straight away realise he wasn't right for the role. It's strange how he can be so convincing as Ethan Hawke, but so unconvincing as Jack Reacher (apart from the obvious size thing) - two very different characters, but still action guys nevertheless.
Personally, Liam Neeson is the only big actor I can think of that would do the character justice, but perhaps having just done Taken and Taken 2 (and perhaps Unknown as well) it would be all a bit too similar.
That aside, the overall story is good (I imagine the books are respected), but the script is poor and the film just doesn't have a soul, you don't care or gel with any character. Cruise has a couple of cool lines and it's good to see Duvall in a film again, but other than that it's all quite poor. No amazing stunts to talk about, the fight scenes aren't great, either Cruise or Reacher can't drive and apart from Rosamund Pike the rest of the supporting cast don't bring anything to the party.
I enjoyed the first 20 minutes or so, pretty much up until Jack Reacher is introduced and then it tailed off pretty quickly and the less said about the end the better.
Overall, I was very disappointed with this film, maybe my expectations were too high, but I've come to expect more from the main actor and although the director hasn't directed much in the past he wrote the screenplay for this and had previously done The Usual Suspects and Valkyrie, so I would have expected more from him as well. Let's hope they both do better on their next film - All You Need Is Kill Having relatively recently watched Skyfall, Taken 2, Haywire, Safe House, The Bourne Legacy and MI4, this is sadly very much at the bottom of that list. I'd probably put it on par with Cold Light Of Day or Abduction - although the latter was far more entertaining.
I've not written a review before on IMDb, but just had to when I saw all the high scores this film was getting!