Good action film, but nothing to do with Reacher

Rating: 5/10 (30 December 2013)

Making a Jack Reacher film was well overdue but I was hoping for some of the essence of Reacher in the film.
The first problem was the casting. If you're going to cast someone for the role of a 210-250 lb, 6' 5" killing machine, then Tom Cruise would be at the bottom of the list (just below Peter Dinklage).
The second problem was the script. They cut out 3 of the 5 main female roles in the film. One of the big things about Reacher novels is that the female roles have depth of character and are often given quite some heft. The 2 female roles in the final script were just the run of the mill dependent bimbos.
What on earth is a car chase doing in a Reacher story? He's a lousy driver.
They turned Barr's involvement on its head. This meant that Reacher's abilities as an investigator weren't explored. Neither did they show his one step ahead of the bad guy intelligence.
If I had been directing this thing I would have had a background narrator in the role of Reacher. This would have made the fight scene at the bar at least believable. An internal monologue would have made sense of that rather than Tom Cruise explaining exactly what was going on out loud. (Hardly the element of surprise)
The biggest problem with the script, though, was the ending. It had none of Reacher in it. Okay they might have had a problem with Tom Cruise killing a 6' 4" Russian by crushing him to death and then cutting his throat "just to make sure" but the shear mean bad-ass nature of his methods weren't displayed in any way shape or form.
Other than that it was actually a decent action film, but nothing to do with Jack Reacher.