Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Now we come to the latest big screen adventure for Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, this time not based on a specific book, but rather just inspired by the character. Prior to re-watching this film I had no memory at all of it, despite having actually seen the film previously, aside from the fact that it starred Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, and Kevin Costner and very little else. That is not a good sign.

Jack Ryan (played this time by Chris Pine) is studying at the London School of Economics when the September 11th attacks occur and goes into the Marines. He is a helicopter crash while serving in Afghanistan, critically injuring his spine. During a lengthy recovery process, he meets third year med student Cathy Mueller (played by Keira Knightley) and sparks begin to fly as she helps him with his physical therapy. He also attracts the attention of Thomas Harper (played by Kevin Costner), who was impressed with his reporting and analysis during the war and recruits him into the CIA. Flash forward ten years and Ryan is covertly working on Wall Street, looking through financial transactions for signs of terrorist activity and dating Cathy. He starts to notice a large number of secret and blocked financial files belonging to Viktor Cherevin (played by Kenneth Branagh). Unable to access them to do an audit gives him a plausible reason to travel to Moscow to investigate. What he finds is that Cherevin's shadow investments could destabilize the United States economy following a terrorist attack, along with several other countries while benefiting Russia. Harper instructs Ryan to obtain proof of this from Cherevin's highly secured office, but there is an additional wrinkle: Cathy has followed Jack to Moscow to surprise him since she was suspecting he was having an affair. Since Cherevin is aware of Cathy's arrival, she has no choice but to become part of the mission with Jack and Harper. 

This Jack Ryan outing was directed by Kenneth Branagh from a script by Adam Cozad and David Koepp. It's not based on a particular Tom Clancy novel and is instead just taking inspiration from the characters contained within the novel. I suppose this approach makes sense, especially after 9/11 I seriously doubt that Clancy's next novel in the series, Debt of Honor, could be adapted, at least in any sort of faithful way given how that novel ends. Still, even though the film looks slick and Branagh stages his action sequences well, the film feels like it's been assembled from spare parts left over from the other films. It clocks in at a brisk hour and 45 minutes and is an okay time waster for a rainy Saturday afternoon, but as a memorable political thriller, which these films have been at their best, this one is found severely wanting. 

The cast assembled for the film is an impressive one. Chris Pine makes a reasonably decent Jack Ryan. Aside from a couple of scenes though, he's primarily placed in a stock action hero role for the bulk of the film, chasing cars and fighting bad guys. But there are a few moment's when the character shines through. After narrowly dodging an assassination attempt, Pine's Jack Ryan contacts the CIA for assistance and the way he talks to the contact on the phone and completely frazzled which really rang true to me for a character who is more used to being behind a desk than being an actual operative. Then we see his analyst skills in action on the airplane back from Moscow to America as he pieces together Sherevin's plot and figures out where the attack is going to be (it's impressive, but is pulled together and figured out far too quickly). The problem though is that later he's performing complex car stunts, chasing terrorists on a motorcycle and generally being the super agent he never was to begin with, which creates an annoying inconsistency with his character. Keira Knightley does well in the role of Cathy Mueller, a character finally stepping into the main plot of the film and figuring into it in a major way, after being sidelined for most of the previous films, it's just unfortunate that it happens in the worst entry of the series. Still, her reaction when she found out Jack was in the CIA and not having an affair was pretty amusing. Kevin Costner take the mentor role this time out as Thomas Harper, and manages to make his character the most interesting in the film, working wonders with what little material he has. Kenneth Branagh's Sherevin is a reasonably threatening villain, with a soft spoken nature that is generally creepy and forgoing the usual overacting one might see in this type of role. 

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a straight-forward formula spy thriller clearly designed to create a new franchise. It lacks the depth and nuance that popularized the best of the Jack Ryan films, going for more straight-forward action thrills that we've seen dozens of times before. It follows the plot line we expect beat by beat with very few surprises. It's calculated product meant to populate mall multiplexes lacking in any sort of memorable depth, thought or personality of it own. It's not terrible, it's just painfully mediocre.