First one MUCH better: my theory on why (spoilers on both)
(1) Plot. The idea of covering up a murder through a mass shooting is simple and brilliant, much more engaging than any part of the plot in JRNLB. Oh, wow, a conctractor is selling to Afghan opium cartels and making tons of money, and the big mystery is that they're also importing drugs? The big reveal of finding the opium inside the missile canisters was a total fizzle. Plots this straightfoward can work fine if there's great characters, but...
(2) ...Character chemistry. The chemistry between Cruise/Pike in JR, and between Cruise/Smulders characters in JRNLB is about the same. They might hook up someday, but they can't right now because they're all just so stoic and asexual and PG-13 about everything. No wonder social conservatives love Lee Child so much. The heyday in the blood is tame...but JR had the wisdom not to spend much time on the chemistry; it was downplayed, in the background. But in JRNLB, I haven't seen so many scenes of two characters staring at each other but not touching each other outside of Twilight.
The "daughter" was a bright spot. The teenage sidekick, sarcastic but still a kid with a good heart, is one of the biggest cliches in action films, but for good reason.
(3) Most important, in terms of my tastes: action scenes. The action scenes in JR are among my favorite in recent years. They're quirky, elemental, unpredictable. Picture JR getting clocked by the baseball bat and then dodging the yokel's blows by simply staying in the tub, his attackers too hopped up to actually hit him, or JR then breaking the guys finger with the trigger guard, or the simplicity of the car chase, that is all about the FEEL of driving a stick shift muscle car.
And it's almost two different characters. JR (in the first film) is not Jason Bourne or Jason Statham; he's a realistic fighter. He's only able to take on 5 guys in a bar parking lot because they're local hoods, drunk and casual, with no real training. I LOVE Cruise's shrug when one of them says, "You done this before?" It's like he's communicating, "Um, actually yes. I'd much rather go in and eat...Are you SURE you want to do this?" When Reacher goes up against top-shelf Mercs in the final scene, with only Gunny to back him up, he comes across as terrified at times (ie, pinned down in the Mercedes), because he's no invincible super-soldier. Just a very good one.
But in JRNLB he continually takes down top-shelf Mercs, supposedly all ex-military, with a few blows. And the kiss of death: like a cardboard Jason Statham character, he acts completely calm and casual, making dumb wisecracks, before going up against 4 well trained guys who want to kill him, barely breaking a sweat. Apart from the senior bad guy, Reacher comes across as more-or-less invincible, which is boring.
Swagger + vulnerability = classic alpha-male stoic masculine character. With it's classic Western plot (well-meaning drifter coming into a classic American town, solves a crime, then takes down the whole syndicate), and it's hard-boiled dialogue ("I can't afford you." "I'm not a hooker!" "Then I REALLY can't afford you."), JR is a classic. JRNLB was fine, but a pale shadow of the first one.
Thoughts? Other than that I have too much time on my hands (guilty)?