I grew up on Tom Clancy films and video games. My father was an avid reader of Clancy's novels. To me Jack Ryan will always be Harrison Ford. Ford portrayed Ryan in "Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger." While Alic Baldwin was descent in "The Hunt for Red October," I think Ford did a better job of potraying the analyst side of Jack Ryan than Baldwin or Ben Affleck in the "Sum of All Fears."
It has been twelve years since Ryan was on the big screen. The new rookie to play this famous espionage character is Chris Pine. When I first heard that Pine would play Jack Ryan, I was optimistic because of his performance in "This Means War." In contrast, when I learned that Keira Knightly would be playing Cathy Muller, Ryan's soon to be wife, I was skeptical. Mrs. Knightly tends to play very odd roles and frankly I cannot shake the image of her from "The Pirates of Caribbean: At World's End" or "Anna Karenina." Mrs. Knightly reminds me of Tim Burton's wife. She has a very morbid and sensual presence on screen. Suffice to say she was the last person I would have thought they would pick for Ryan's wife.
The beginning of Jack Ryan: Shadow Agent starts when Ryan is at university and notices everyone is uneasy on campus. He makes his way into the hall were students are surrounding a TV watching The Trade Towers smoking on September 11th, 2001. Ryan then apparently overcome with patriotism and a zeal to bring to justice those responsible for the terrorist attack, he signs up for the Marines. It is during a routine patrol via helicopter that Ryan is shot down and is severely injured. Ryan with his spinal column broken must go through eight months of rehab were he meets Cathy who he falls in love with. Nearing the end of his rehab he meets Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner), who evidently is looking for a new recruit for the C.I.A. Ryan wanting to serve his country agrees to head to Wall Street and spy on Russian accounts and report back to Harper.
In middle of this we are introduced to the villain of the film, Viktor Cherevin played by Kenneth Branagh. Viktor is a Russian involved in global economics and who has plan to sabotage America's Economy and make Russia rich. Ryan is assigned to Russia when he realizes that there are major accounts full of millions and that the American dollar is still rising despite global economic chaos. Ryan arrives in Russia and survives an assassination attempt and discovers Viktor Cherevin plan.
In between all the action is the subplot of Ryan and Dr. Muller. The romantic drama is very cheesy and frankly it is hard to take Mrs. Knightley's performance seriously. The whole "I think Ryan is having an affair but I find out he's CIA" is cliché and not very amusing to watch. Mrs. Knightley's subpar acting does not help either.
The plot itself is straight from the Cold War but it takes place in a post 9/11 setting. From what I can devise the writers decided to use Clancy's "Cardinal in Kremlin" and the Ryan Origin Story as pieces of the story. unfortunately rather than follow the plot of those books, the story only uses parts of them and rebuilds them in a different plot. In fact, it is this mixture that does a disservice to the film. Rather than just adapt "Cardinal in Kremlin" and tell the fascinating space wars or Star Warts story of the Cold War, the writers tried desperately to make it modern. What is puzzling is that George Clooney is make good money doing WWII films and no one seems to be bothered that it is set in another era. In fact, with the plethora of espionage films being the present or future, it would have been refreshing to go back in time to the Golden Age of espionage.
Overall, Jack Ryan: Shadow Agent is a descent film. It is not the Jack Ryan I remember. It feels very much like "This Means War" without the humor. Chris Pine basically carries the film. Kevin Costner is good, but not great. Costner plays the stereotypical mentor who gives fatherly advice like he did in "Man of Steel." Keira Knightly as I said is poor, she brings nothing to the film except being a damsel in distress, which after seeing her in The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise it is difficult to suspend your disbelief. Kenneth Branagh brings a solid performance as Viktor. He is your typical Russian villain, but he is convincing until the scene when he is going to use a florescent light bulb to torture and kill Cathy Muller.
If you are fan of Clancy's books, I think you will be disappointed. If you are fan of the earlier Jack Ryan films you will be disappointed. If you enjoyed "The Sum of All Fears" with Ben Affleck, I think you will be disappointed. There was a chance to resurrect the Ryan franchise, but poor writing and bad casting destroyed that hope.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is not horrible. If you forget it is a Ryan film, it is actually a mediocre film. In fact, it compares with "A Good Day to Die Hard" which did not feel like Die Hard film either. It is almost as if Hollywood has lost all It's creativity and the sequels are just aimed at getting nostalgic fans to the box office to see their favorite characters. Action films now are being released without developed characters or plot. As a result we get basically the same film over and over again. Perhaps Christopher Nolan has ruined action films for us and because of his deep story lines we expect more from the action genre. Whatever the case, Jack Ryan: Shadow Agent is rent worthy at best. I suggest you forgo seeing it in theaters and save your money for an upcoming film.
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