Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) is recruited as an analyst for the CIA. When he stumbles upon a scheme to topple the US dollar, Ryan is parachuted into Moscow to figure out what is going on.
Following in the footsteps of Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck, Chris Pine is playing a Ryan that is not just younger than his predecessors, but post-Hollywood’s obsession with prequels.
I was going to review this as part of a Jack Ryan miniseries, but this movie is so different from its predecessors that it did not feel necessary.An originalprequel updated to the present, we see Ryan’s origins, including the accident which diverted from a career as a soldier to behind-the-scenes analyst.For the first half of the movie, Shadow Recruit is hardly earth-shattering but it is reasonably entertaining.
Pine is good casting as Ryan, but the script never threads the needle between Ryan as an intellect and Ryan as a man of action - it is in too much of a hurry to keep the movie going, and Ryan gets a few too many action sequences which are not resolved by his wits.
The one thing it never quite nails is Ryan's domestic life. I have not read the books, but one of the chief selling points of the cinematic characterisation has been Ryan's status as a caring husband and father. One of the things I most remember about the Harrison Ford movies are the scenes with his family.
Taking place at the beginning of his relationship with Cathy (Keira Knightley), the script makes a token attempt at brining her into the action but it just feels contrived and silly. Saddled with an American accent, Knightley feels somewhat disconnected. She is not bad, but she has more chemistry with Branagh than Pine.
No one can replace Anne Archer, but I wish the movie had spent more time on their relationship. The Ryans of the Ford movies feel like a real family. The couple here feel like archetypes.
Kenneth Branagh plays the antagonist, Viktor Cherevin, a billionaire and Afghan war veteran with a shortened lifespan and a desire for vengeance against America. He is fine although he comes off as your generic Bond villain.
Kevin Costner plays Ryan’s boss, Thomas Harper. A world-weary spook with no time for Ryan’s personal business, Costner is a welcome presence but - like everybody else - he feels shortchanged.
The other thing that stands out is how disinterested the movie is in Ryan as an analyst. Once again, the movie does not seem interested in one of the key elements of the previous Ryan movies, which is process. The other movies spent a lot of time on scenes of Ryan analysing and investigating intelligence. What scenes we get in Shadow Recruit feel like cheats as Ryan and his team quickly figure out what is going on.
One of the joys of the previous Ryan movies is how tangential Ryan is to the action sequences - one of the highlights of Clear and Present Danger is watching Ford's Ryan struggle to print a file while its owner is deleting it in the next room.
These movies are about so much more than action, and the film's moments of espionage are built on so much fudged tech and easy work-arounds that there is no tension and no sense of payoff for when Ryan figures himself out of danger.
The other issue, which might explain my problems, is that movie feels far too short.The movie feels like it is just getting started when we start heading toward the climax. Shadow Recruit ultimately feels like a glorified TV pilot rather than a big screen thriller.
It is a pity - the cast are no worse than any of the previous ensembles, and the villain’s scheme is fine but all these ingredients would have been better served with a stronger script.
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