(This review may contain spoilers).
Even though I haven’t read any of the books, I did see the previous movie in this franchise.
I felt Jack Reacher came across as much more socially awkward in this movie, especially when it came to his interactions with Sam… but also when he was speaking with Major Turner. While it was good to see she was a strong character, I felt she was pushed very much to the background, even though most of the main plot involved her. While I do like Tom Cruise as an actor, I didn’t think much of his character.
I did think there was a lot of good setup, but at the same time, I found the storyline a bit difficult to follow at times. I found some of the connections between the characters a bit hard to follow.
There were some really good action sequences in this movie and I liked seeing Jack Reacher in his phone calls to Major Turner. It was good to see the two of them interacting before they met in person.
I thought it was good to see Reacher trying to be a father, even though he clearly had no idea how to actually be one. It was nice to see him bonding with Sam and especially good to see the way their relationship had evolved by the end of the movie.
I did feel that the corruption levels seemed to be quite high and it was difficult to see exactly who the bad guys were. At the beginning of the movie, when Reacher was accused of murder, I did think the evidence was really flimsy, even though Reacher’s responses were amusing to hear. At the same time, I found it strange that he refused to respond, as there seemed to be no logic to that.
I did recognise quite a few actors and for the most part, I found the characters they played to be engaging and realistic. The exception was the main bad guy. By the time it got to the end of the movie, it seemed more like he was pursuing a personal vendetta that didn’t make a lot of sense.
While there were some disturbing scenes, such as when one of the characters was tortured, it didn’t really hit very hard, as I didn’t care that much about a lot of the secondary characters.
This film was entertaining to watch and there were some engaging scenes with main characters I did care about. But I wouldn’t gain anything from watching this movie again, so I wouldn’t buy it on DVD.
Ink of Blood 