I will admit that I’ve never read a single Tom Clancy novel, but I’ve seen plenty of Tom Clancy-based films; Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit extends that legacy of relatively good, if somewhat safe, military-spy thrillers that earned Clancy his reputation. Of course, Clancy’s dead, so let’s reboot his most famous character! Yay!
The bigger question is: does Chris Pine live up to his three predecessors? In the case of Ben Affleck, it’s an unequivocal “yes”, because The Sum of All Fears is awful and no one should like it. In the case of Alec Baldwin, he’s barely in The Hunt for Red October. And as for Harrison Ford…who can really beat Harrison Ford at this game? But hey, comparisons are for losers.
Even so, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit marks Chris Pine’s first performance as Jack Ryan, and he does a remarkably convincing job. You’d imagine that, for example, he’d go for the “cool, collected funny guy” vibe you get from his portrayal of Captain Kirk in Star Trek, but he plays this role relatively straight. Of course, he also needs to convince the audience that he holds a PhD in economics (or something), and the plot devolves into the traditional “CIA technobabble” except for a more financial perspective this time. In other words, economic terrorism plays a huge part in this film, which seems like a rather realistic threat in our current economic climate. Also, are we in the Cold War again, and if so, is it OK to use Russia as the villains regarding terrorist attacks? I guess?
Anyway, the movie works in spite of the complications because, hey, it’s a thriller with actual tension and dynamics. Rather than releasing you from the grips of potentially dangerous situations, most of the script deals with the (perceived, by the general public) inner workings of subterfuge and spycraft. You don’t say what you really mean; you tease the details out of your target. If you need to kill someone who wants to kill you, you do it and you call in the cleanup crew over an 85-second phonecall (which, I assume, is under the time it takes for someone to trace a cellphone call to its location). Everything in the film feels like something actual, good spies would actually do, and that credibility (a hallmark of Clancy stuff in general) works to the film’s benefit more often than not.
In fact, their introduction of characters through their actions rather than overlong exposition actually aids the film’s story immensely. Jack Ryan goes to the London School of Economics; he sees the events of 9/11. We immediately cut to a helicopter while Jack Ryan is sworn in as a marine while hunting for terrorists in Afghanistan. He suffers huge, life-threatening injuries when a missile hits his helicopter; while he recovers, he still suffers from a broken back and must undergo extensive physical therapy, but he isn’t willing to give up. All of that sets up the subsequent events, and even the things he hasn’t done yet give us insight into the character (especially in the moment). You’ll see what I mean; there’s narrative and character tensions throughout, and all of them lend an extra air to the whole affair.
Again, most of this comes through less through dialogue and through the strengths of a visual medium: you can show rather than tell. Honestly, this makes a world of difference for effective storytelling, and this applies to all the people you meet in this film. Kenneth Branaugh plays a convincing Russian who apparently doesn’t like people very much, and the plot mostly revolves around his…well, mysterious company. Even Kevin Costner makes for a convincing authority figure. Well, I guess I could except Keira Knightley, who has seemingly forgotten how human facial expressions function in this movie. Seriously, she looks like an alien half the time, and the strange lighting in the beginning of the film also does wonders to add to that comically unintentional effect.
Perhaps my favorite portion of the film comes from a COMPLETE LACK OF AN ORIGIN STORY. Thank God, really! I am absolutely, positively BORED TO DEATH of having to watch an entire movie of relationship building, character development, and ability discovery that appears completely indistinguishable from just about every other similar universe (Marvel, I am talking to you right now). The entire story of Jack Ryan’s prior life to the events of the film takes approximately 12 minutes of the film’s run-time (the events I just described), and this delighted me to no end. Much as this film goes right for the same old action sequences and the exact build-up you will expect (with lots of polish on top), I still prefer an actual story to starting right from the beginning YET AGAIN.
Of course, the film’s absolutely predictable, especially for a recurring character like Jack Ryan, but debating a film’s lack of merit for following successful tropes and employing them well seems like awful nitpicking to me. Rather, can I let myself go for a few hours, invest myself in the characters and situations, and also have a good time without questioning one slight absurdity or another (like, for example, Kevin Costner being in charge of a hidden financial black ops unit REALLY)? If so, I call that film a success on a surface level at the very least.
Kenneth Branaugh seems to find himself in the habit of making action films and playing villains – I hope he continues both!
Just one note about the home release: I watched this on Blu-Ray with 5.1 surround sound; for whatever reason, the sound engineers decided to mix the dialogue incredibly low while keeping the bass/other noises incredibly high, and this led to more than one occasion of ear shattering burnout. I’m not sure whether that’s a problem on my end or not, but just be forewarned if you’re in a similar situation.
