Jack Reacher

Sometimes inspiration hits in the funniest places. Or maybe not inspiration, but curiosity.  First the movie. Jack Reacher is an ex-Army MP who is apparently the worlds best investigator and baddest tough guy. He gets "called" into Pittsburgh to help investigate the guilt/innocence of a sniper. His persona is one of quiet confidence, which I guess you can have (confidence that is) when you know you can beat up 5 guys any time you want. For the first part of the film, Reacher is almost apologetic about his ability to hurt people and he really just wants people to tell him the truth, not get beat up. But in this we are drawn into a bit of minor hero worship. Don't we all hope Reacher is the guy investigating our crime when we are falsely accused? Don't we all want Reacher to ignore the rules to get at the truth? And as we are set up to really like this guy, we are then reminded that Reacher practices vigilante justice. He is never wrong, so it is OK. It is a bit ironic that the entire film plot is based on Reacher helping a lawyer avoid the death penalty for this sniper who killed 5 people in cold blood. And yet somehow, the villain does not even get a trial or a lawyer to argue against the death penalty. Just death. I like that this is not just straight up action, but is an investigation. It gives us time to observe, to think and recognize what mythology the authors want us to believe. And we have time to decide whether we actually believe this.

3 stars (out of 5)

Now to curiosity. The movie previews included ads for two 1st person shooter games that are being released soon. In my hope to some day see books and films that are both good and offer alternatives to violence for dealing with conflict, I wondered what it would look like for a 1st person shooter game to be non-violent. Or at least, violent without death? It seems that two things are going on in these games: 1st - players must solve a puzzle or traverse a maze to "win", and 2nd- players must be alive to do this (and often killing the bad guy is the only way to progress through the puzzle). Is it possible to have a kick-ass puzzle/maze that would knock even the most ardent player flat with its detail and at the same time, set up "fight rules" that reward violence-alternative solutions? These rules would have to be very cool and unique. I don't play enough to even know how to imagine what the alternatives could be. But this kind of game would be so novel, it would definitely have a corner on the market. I would simply hope that it would not be released and only be "kinda-OK". "Kinda-OK" is like christian rock. It's not really good, but it is christian so some people listen. Someone out there invent a kick-ass, violence-alternative, 1st person shooter game for me.