Jack Ryan Returns

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Review

Story - Jack Ryan, as a young covert CIA analyst, uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy with a terrorist attack.

 Tom Clancy's CIA analyst has not been seen since last played by Ben Affleck 11 years ago. Now, Captain of the Enterprise Chris Pine steps into the role and does a descent enough job to update the character and humanize him. Chris does not in any way come off as cold, you can feel his passion, his frustrations, his shocks and his worries. I loved him in this, felt it was slightly above his work in Star Trek. He has potential to become a real good version of the character, if given the chance. He is also surrounded by a very talented cast that includes the British beauty Keira Knightly (great to see her back on the big screen), Kevin Costner (as Jack's mentor) and Kenneth Branagh as both the film's main villain and the director.

With all the many prequels and remakes of late its hard to find anything that is the slightest bit original or entertaining enough to even sit through. I enjoyed this origins tale about Jack Ryan, his first mission as an operation covert agent. I loved it. The action was there, the character moments were peppered through out and the visual look of the film was perfect. I found it got slightly complex when talk came about economics and banking but it made for a very interesting plot where Russian terrorists planned to cripple the US economy. I don't know why more people are not clambering to see this movie. It fits with the times and really puts its characters into more realistic situations. It's tense, its nail-biting and best of all its smart. I found not a single character in this movie acted stupid.

  As far as I felt I would have loved to have seen what Kenneth would have done if he had returned to Thor. The way he works with his female characters is he does not make them the objects of men's desires. They are either working agents or doctors who, when they get involved in tense situations, know how to handle themselves.

Concerning the hollywood trend of CGI filled action films I would put out that this one as a bare minimum of visual effects, it is not like the blown of proportion The Sum of All Fears 2002 film was, but the visuals are added to where it counts. In that it makes the film more focused on getting good character moments and realistic fights that are bloody and intense (the bathroom fight in this one matches that of James Bond's first outing).

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is the perfect spy thriller that comes with the trio (Pine, Costner, Knightley) of stellar casting choices, a great visual pallet and an intriguing update to present times.

Rating: A-