Sigh. Poorly adapted for screen.

Rating: 4/10 (29 April 2015)

I've read all the books and was disappointed with this adaptation for film. Not that this is a new experience. Why the bathroom fight scene? 20 odd books to work from and the film comes up with fight that sees Reacher prevail due to dumb luck? Completely out of character. Yes, Reacher is analytical, but he is not monotonous, not without character, not wooden and dispassionate, not humorless. There is nothing likable about this characterisation of Reacher, where is the live free/carefree aspect of his character? Disappointing. And the "he doesn't care about the law..." monologue at the end, was that lifted straight from the Waterworld script? Was the entire film so poor in establishing the character that this was required, or did the director think the viewers so stupid that reinforcement was required by way of direct exposition. Sigh. I was really looking forward to this with fingers crossed. It is not terrible, but it should have been better given the wealth of material at their disposal. I hope it did well enough for them to have a second effort, to see if they can make it work. Cruise was OK, but I would rather have a Reacher film than an adaptation-to-make-it- work-for-Tom Cruise film. An opportunity missed. To my mind, Reacher was already such a strong character with a large and well established following that a "star" was not required to carry the film franchise. If they wanted a "star", I still can't go past Jackman.