All about the introduction of Jack Reacher; Lousy flimsy plot.

Rating: 6/10 (20 December 2012)

"Jack Reacher" is all about the introduction of Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher; he is presented here as a superman who can out-wit, out-fight, out-run and out-shoot anyone and everyone. While Tom Cruise does a decent job with Reacher, the main problem with the movie is that the overly elaborate plot setup at the beginning can only offer a minuscule payoff at the end. The plot splutters and whittles out to nothing in the end making the whole movie feel anti-climactic and pointless.
The trailers for the movie are misleading. My first impression from the teaser was a Punisher sort of movie. My second impression, from the roars of the muscle car in the trailer, was one that of one of those Nic Cage action movies. It is neither. It's a stuffy cop/crime show movie at first and then a punch out, shoot out and car chase kind of action movie next (though its humble budget only allows for moderately wrecking of three cars with none exploding). Think "Alex Cross" kind of movie.
Jack Reacher is presented here as a sort of GI batman who is great at detective work, combat work and not bad at quick talking either; always there with a heavy punch or a witty comeback. The entire movie, plot and the characters just serve as the canvas to show off Jack Reacher's virtues. As Reacher says, "he has nothing to lose or gain", and so the Reacher we meet at the beginning of the movie is the same Reacher at the end of the movie and so the whole movie feels like one long introduction to the amazing Mr. Reacher. In fact, Reacher is vastly over-developed; things like being off the grid and unable to be contacted, or being an ex-military investigator where his every suspect was a trained killer, are superfluous to the movie plot at hand and just there for the sake of making Reacher look more awesome.
There is a passable low-budget detective action movie underneath all this. This detective story has the feel of an 80s action cop movie mixed in with the style of modern TV crime and legal drama but without any of the Mission Impossible style high budget action sequences. It's a pity the plot can't fully rise up to challenge Jack Reacher which might have made for a good movie. Although, there is engrossing half an hour in the middle of the movie when Reacher is searching for his assailants and the girl Sandy that shows a glimpse of what the movie could have been if the plot had been better.
Overall, "Jack Reacher" doesn't feel like a big action movie; the plot is small and riddled with logic holes and the story is driven by actions because it's the only way for the plot to move forward. But, the charisma of the stars pull this into something watchable. The cynic in me feels like this is a low-budget, low-risk test to see if "Jack Reacher" can be made to a Mission Impossible like franchise rather than a real movie that stands on its own two feet.