Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) review

Author Tom Clancy, who sadly passed away in October of last year, has left quite an impact on pop culture. His novels featured tales of military espionage set during or after the Cold War and 17 of his novels have become bestsellers. He has also lent his name to multiple video game franchises, including ‘Splinter Cell’, ‘Rainbow Six’, and ‘Ghost Recon’. Some of his stories have been adapted to film, with most of them focusing on the character of Jack Ryan, a CIA analyst and occasional field operative. This character had previously been portrayed on screen by Alec Baldwin in ‘The Hunt for Red October’, by Harrison Ford in both ‘Patriot Games’ and ‘Clear and Present Danger’, and by Ben Affleck in ‘The Sum of All Fears’. In this new film, which serves as a reboot for the franchise (its second after ‘Sum of All Fears’), Star Trek’s ‘Captain Kirk’, Chris Pine, stars in the role of Ryan and the film is directed by Kenneth Branagh, who as a director landed a very big hit back in 2011 with ‘Thor’. As for this film, it’s not exactly perfect (what more should you expect from a film that came out in the ‘dead month’ of January?) but it is still pretty entertaining mainly thanks to its cast which help this film manage to ultimately overcome its shortcomings.

Compelled to serve his country after 9/11, student Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) joins the Marine Corps but his time as a soldier abruptly comes to an end after he nearly dies when his platoon’s helicopter is shot down. While in rehab, he is recruited into the CIA by agent Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner) as an analyst. Ten years later, Jack, while undercover as a broker on Wall Street, discovers a potential terrorist attack that could weaken the market, eliminate the value of the dollar, and lead America into a second Great Depression. After Harper promotes him to the position of operative, Jack heads to Russia to meet with Viktor Cheverin (Kenneth Branagh), a businessman whose directly involved with this plot. Things get a bit more complicated, however, when Jack’s girlfriend Cathy (Keira Knightley) is brought into the situation and he is forced to reveal to her what his ‘real’ job is having kept it secret for years.

Now I’m not too familiar with this franchise as a whole, but from what I can gather, the appeal of the character of Jack Ryan is that he’s an everyman. He’s someone who gets into incredibly dangerous situations even when they are more than he’s used to handling. But at the same time, he’s not like some invincible superhero without any flaws. Overall, I’d say this film succeeds at making the character of Jack relatable to the audience. He is in way over his head and while it may seem like he is able to get out of most situations that come upon him without any major problems, the character still has a very down-to-earth and likable personality. Chris Pine does a very good job in the role. It doesn’t require the ‘cocky’ attitude of a character like James T. Kirk, but Pine still manages to be a charming lead. Kevin Costner (who’s having quite the career resurgence lately after his excellent performance in ‘Man of Steel’) and Keira Knightley also do good jobs as well, although Knightley’s role leans toward ‘damsel in distress’ territory near the end of the film. At the same time, she does get involved in Jack’s work at one point and the two of them have really good chemistry so it’s not like she’s just there to be Jack’s love interest. Finally, in the villain role, Kenneth Branagh also does a good job as well; his character can be both menacing and yet charming at the same time.

However, as a director, Branagh still isn’t used to directing an action move yet. In ‘Thor’, it wasn’t really too much of a big deal when it came to the action sequences, but some were shot in that close-up, quick edit style that some action movies tend to use. The same scenario applies here; most of the action scenes are shot close-up and use fast edits. Like in ‘Thor’, it’s not too much of a problem but at the same time it shows that Branagh needs to improve as an action director. On that note, the film itself also really doesn’t have a ‘definitive’ action sequence. There are a couple of car chases and some one-on-one fight scenes but I can’t really say that any of these scenes really stood out. It’s sort of your basic spy thriller; a good and entertaining one, but pretty basic as far as its execution is concerned. Maybe under a different director, the action scenes could have been better and some of them could have really stood out. In the end though, that wasn’t the case with this film.

I was a little hesitant about this film being pushed back to January because, as we all know, January is not exactly the best month for movies and that was a little worrisome considering the talent involved on this film both behind and in front of the camera. However, in the end, this is one of the better films that have come out during this month. At the same time, though, it makes sense why this was released at this time because overall this film is just good, not great. That’s not to discredit this film by any means. It is a very entertaining spy thriller that benefits from having a solid cast, namely Chris Pine in the lead role. There is potential in this franchise but at the same time, there’s also room for improvement. Branagh is a good director, but as an action director, he still needs to work on just that… action. This film lacks a definitive action sequence, and some of the action sequences are shot in the close-up, quick edit fashion. Still, I can see this becoming a franchise. I would just suggest that the studio try and find a director who is more suited to the action genre.

Rating: 3/5