Jack Reacher (2012)

Delightfully enough, "Jack Reacher" starts on a rather slow, methodical (and grim) pace. After a decade of tiresome cartoon-based flicks with an action sequence every 12,4 minutes, any alteration is most welcome. Besides. It nicely sets up the main character, a no-nonsense Tom Cruise.

As Reacher is supposed to be huge, and Cruise is midget-material, the fans were understandably most sceptical to that piece of casting. It does make the shots that are supposed to make Cruise come off as massive, rather stupid, but all in all, Cruise is quite believable as the ex-soldier on a narrower scale. 

Generally, writer/director McQuarrie has a grim take on this, to the extreme in some scenes. As the rest of the film isn't quite as gloomy, they seem a bit separated from the story and theme. Perhaps Cruise as a figure just doesn't set the mood dark enough, particularly when interacting with the very innocent-looking crusader played by Rosamund Pike. Or perhaps the director has found all the pieces, but been unable to lay them perfectly.

And for a little gem; extreme kudos to James Martin Kelly and aforementioned Pike for a quite memorable scene with some real tension using minimal effects. Well written, well directed by Christopher McQuarrie. 

A more unwelcome distraction is the father/daughter dynamics between Pike and Richard Jenkins. It adds nothing of value, and has been done in half the mediocre thrillers and TV-shows made. And it is hardly given any time at all. Like an idea thrown into a room and not touched since. 

So the film is quite smart and has a very slow and steady pace for an action film, pulling that off nicely. Suspense is galore, and action a bit short, but fittingly so. It does, however, suffer a bit under a lack of consistency in theme and tone. But it is a decent watch, and you are not likely to ever hear better death-threats as there are some very serious dudes here. Riggs and mr. Joshua did have a better showdown in the rain though. 

7/10