The least interesting things about this film are its hero and the guy who plays him.

The violent crime, and the detective work that uncovers the conspiracy behind it, aren't very interesting either.

What is interesting about it?

Some impressive cinematic storytelling. Some visceral action scenes. The always enchanting Rosamund Pike. Robert Duvall, nearly stealing the show. And the fact that highest-ranking villain is played by Werner Herzog.

Those are some good excuses for moviegoers to make time for Jack…

Some films are poetic. Others are poem-ish.

This one? Ish.

It felt like a movie made by a Poetry 101 student who had just seen Days of Heaven and been given a camera.

Arnold gets that animals and nature can represent the wild side of human nature, and that religion and societal manners can represent repression. She shows us a bird in a cage to suggest entrapment and the desire for freedom.

But after 20 minutes, it seemed to me…

Pretty much what I expected. I finally gave it a look because I sometimes find Fincher's creativity interesting. But even his expertise cannot redeem this incredibly ugly story about bigots and torturers and sadists being hunted by others who have only the faintest traces of conscience. It's a slicker version than the original, but it also stretches a shallow piece of storytelling so far that I was bored and exhausted.The story builds up an enormous appetite for vigilante justice and…