When the douchebag announcer said "you're about to be the first audience in the world see…" people started cheering. Then he said "Jack Reacher, starring Tom Cruise" and the giant auditorium fell silent. You could've heard a pin drop on a cushion. Then as he continued talking, I heard (and said) "What the f— is Jack Reacher?!" people were mocking the name, someone said "two hours for this Tom cruise shit?!" The general mood of the room wasn't just uninterested, it was antagonistic. I looked around. I saw a lot of faces that seemed as angry and disappointed as mine must have been.

It's important to note all that, for context.

Because as soon as the film started, it won the room over. The opening shot (pun intended) was something Hitchcock would have done in his prime. Aside from a 3-4 minute scene that seemed too expository toward the beginning, the movie was well paced, well acted, suspenseful, the action was tense and realistic (you could almost feel how much punching another human being hurts both the punchee and the puncher, and Cruise showed a lot of vulnerability even in those action scenes. One of the most viscerally violent action scenes was also the funniest bit of comic relief in the film. And for that matter, the humor was unexpected and brilliantly executed.

In the end, People seemed satisfied. I sure was. I was glad it was this film instead of Spider-Man, because sad to say, there's no way I would've chosen to pay money to see Tom Cruise in a film called "Jack Reacher."

I hope that title doesn't dissuade moviegoers, because after seeig that, I want to see sequels.

PS. When will The Playlist's review of Prometheus be up?