Reacher's size, bulk and overall density are simply
ingrained in all the different plots. The denseness of his pectoral muscles
alone stopped a bullet dead in its tracks in one of the books for cripes sake.
Tom Cruise could pull off "sneaky assassin," but any attempt to portray him as a "hulking bruiser of a badass" will be laughable. And rewriting Jack Reacher as anything less than a hulking bruiser of a badass will be unacceptable.
I'll watch it; because I don't have a problem maintaining a healthy separation between book and movie (and no movie has the power to retroactively ruin my experience of a good book/character), but he just won't be Jack Reacher. He simply
can't be.
Maybe Peter Jackson can consult, and give this film's director some pointers on how to reverse-hobbitize Cruise using different camera angles and such.
Mini-Reacher.
Who gets the blame for that casting call, anyway? I know Lee Child is at least
pretending to give "Cruise as Reacher" his full support, but what else would you expect an author in his situation do?