The books have been decent for decades. There have been several movies based on them.
Like the Reacher novels and some other decent books…they don’t always translate well. It’s often difficult to match one’s imagination on the screen, large or small.
It isn’t translation, it is mistranslation. Cross is NOTHING like the great books. And starting Reacher with 5 ‘7” Tom Cruise then putting in a properly sized and formidable Reacher, but mistranslating the story and cast as an episode of Marvel comics, killed Reacher for me. Read a Reacher book, then binge watch season 2 and you will see what I mean.