Quote:
Originally Posted by bilcon
I really enjoyed Jack Reacher books until they picked Tom Cruise to play him in the movies. UGH!
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I've read all the Reacher books and one of the major themes, repeated over and over was Jack's imposing physicality. Jack is a 6'5" tall, 250 beast of lean muscle mass like a chimpanzee with preternatural brawling reflexes. The fact that in most situations, Jack simply dominates, without question anyone he gets into melee combat with. There are a couple of exceptions, like the fight with Paulie in Persuader. Paulie was a giant, steroid driven, drug addled monster who could overwhelm Reacher if he ever gets his mitts on him. He almost gets Reacher but makes ones mistake and Jack ends him.
Tom cruise on the other hand, while in great shape, is a 5'7", 155lb twerp. I understand that they wanted the name recognition and Cruise is a good actor, but they really did a disservice to the franchise. People who haven't read the books don't understand just how powerful Reacher is. He still takes losses but in most cases, he can stand up to a threat and defeat it and that's part of what I enjoy about the books. He doesn't get into 5 minute long brawls with people, excepting of course, Paulie as noted above. He starts or is attacked and quickly finishes the battle. He is so dominating that the plot doesn't need the battle to resolve it. The plot has to be clever because the physical battle is almost always a given win for Reacher.