so, i kind of liked this movie, but i guess in the end it never really added up to more than the sum of its parts.
the opening is really, really well done. i was kind of blown away by it, to be honest. but then Jack Reacher comes on the scene and, i dunno, it starts to feel like a fairly generic procedural/action flick. a pretty good generic procedural/action flick, but still. things get a good bit more interesting at the end, so i'll give it that. Herzog is a big reason for that. he and most of the supporting cast (particularly Oyelowo and Jenkins) are one of the film's stronger points.
Cruise is okay but, honestly, i don't think they did a great job of handling the character. there are moments where they hint at some complexity and depth and i get the whole philosophical bent on "he's a drifter" is supposed to draw me in...but yeah, either they should have cast a more enigmatic actor in the role or they should have fleshed that part of the story out better. there are points where they're really hammering on that aspect of the character and then it goes by the wayside completely for the other half of the movie so they can just deal with the plot.
i also found the female lead a complete and utter bore and not convincing in the slightest. that really hurt the movie since i didn't care about her character and i didn't buy any of the supposed chemistry with Reacher.
anyways, i was impressed with how McQuarrie handled the set-pieces, but not as much with the other stuff that makes up the bulk of the movie. that and mixed returns from Cruise/Reacher and a thumbs down for Rosamund Pike and i'm left feeling like it was a 6 out of 10.