My Review of "Jack Reacher (2012)"

Jack Reacher (2012) may be confused with the new Reacher series streaming on Amazon Prime. If you haven't seen that series yet do yourself a favor and check it out. The film and the TV series have a lot of similarities but are ultimately quite different.

This movie starts out very mysteriously. A man drives up to a parking lot miles from a very busy promenade. All the details of his actions are being specifically shown to us as the audience as the camera carefully careens around a lone man. He's about to do the unspeakable and he does it with extreme precision. A lot of work went into the thought process of these first scenes and it shows.

The melancholy atmosphere is suddenly intensified when the man pulls out a sniper rifle and aims it at the carefree pedestrians of the promenade. This all erupts to terror when this assassin murders a number of random civilians in broad daylight. Afterwards this ruthless murderer drives off in haste to make a clean getaway.

Of course this wouldn't be a movie if the police didn't try to find the assailant. They track down the man that they believe killed these innocent people. He's a veteran by the name of Barr and he's going through some heavy PTSD. All the evidence is stacked against him and he doesn't know what's going on. When the police ask for his confession his only response was a man named Jack Reacher.

We then get introduced to Jack himself in a montage that pretty much explains who Jack is. It's very much the same Jack Reacher character that the Reacher TV series is all about since it's from the same source material. The major difference is the size and stature of the actor portraying Jack. In this movie we have Tom Cruise who is quite small in comparison to the massive Alan Ritchson in the Reacher TV show.

You don't have as much of an intimidation factor with Cruise's version as you do in Ritchson. In some ways it works for this film and in some ways it doesn't. You can tell Jack's character is supposed to be an imposing presence and you don't exactly get that with Cruise all the time. He does do a good job in building some intimidation but it's nothing compared to Ritchson's version.

Still, that's not the main focus of this movie. The main focus is based on the web of lies and deceit that Jack and Barr's attorney Helen have to uncover. This movie will continue to spiral through a series of clues that bring us to the main bad guy. The way that it's done is pretty clever and refreshing. It's not often that they put this much work into the explanation of clues in action movies.

Helen is even tasked to talk to the victim's families to see if these victims are truly random citizens or not. This movie knows what our preconceived expectations are for this type of movie and it kind of flips us upside down to keep us at the edge of our seats.

Closer to the end of the movie they do a good job in keeping the tension high. They keep making us second guess what's going to happen next. First time viewers of this movie will be delighted at the unpredictable nature of how things will turn up despite knowing ultimately what will eventually happen.

Overall, this is a fantastic movie. If you're into some detective action drama this movie has it all. The pacing of the movie is spot on and it will have you gripped to your seat from start to finish. That's why I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. True, they could have had a more imposing actor to play Jack but this movie still holds up 10 years later.