Totally oblivious to the audience

Rating: 3/10 (21 April 2013)

Did you see great visuals on TV? That's why this film gets the 3 stars I'm giving it. When it comes to story line, you've seen this before 1,000 times but much smarter in other films. I had no idea that this was based on a graphic novel, more like a bad comic book. By the end, it was clear that this film was made for idiots who can check their brain in at the entrance and worship the man name Cruise who was on Cruise Control.
For some reason I allowed myself to pay to watch Cruise try to play 6 foot 6 inch Jack Reacher a few months ago. Bad idea. Gave him one last chance and came in with an open mind. The opening scene is a little murky. You're not quite sure what to make of it. Great visuals, the explanation given by Cruise is hokey, something is off but you just go with it. In short, he and his female companion are supposedly the last remaining people on earth with a job to do before they are ready to join the rest of the others in 2 weeks on Saturn. They are a clean up crew, maintaining drones that kill the alien "scavengers" on the planet and extracting water/minerals.
Gratuitous CGI, which is done pretty effectively, leads us to the first immediate problem. When Cruise pulls out a New York Yankee hat while reminiscing about a football game, you can't help but think "perhaps the worst and conspicuous choice of product placement I've ever seen." From that point on, while you want to figure out some of the mystery, you're loath to admit that this script has silly holes in it the size of Saturn.
Now I've seen worse but the middle and ending are very disappointing because the twists are not only predictable but so many remind you of other films. And they are also very awkwardly managed. With each twist you keep begging the film to come up with a better answer for these oddities. And as the film plods along, they are unsatisfactory.
This is a good free on cable movie, not worth spending money in the theater. As a rental, be prepared for disappointment. It's Cruise doing Cruise, marching on without brains to pick up a big check.