{"id":6038,"date":"2014-01-17T02:34:51","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T10:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=6038"},"modified":"2014-01-17T02:34:51","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T10:34:51","slug":"jack-ryan-shadow-recruit-a-reboot-that-feels-obsolete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=6038","title":{"rendered":"JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT a Reboot That Feels Obsolete"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It’s been more than ten years since the last onscreen adventure of Jack Ryan. And it’s not difficult to see why. Author Tom Clancy’s creation was a product of a different time… specifically, the Cold War. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit<\/em> does its best to reinvigorate the franchise and is an undeniably good-looking and fast-paced movie. However, as agreeable as it is, the whole enterprise can’t help but still seem behind the times. <\/p>\n

Set in present day, this reboot follows a young, gifted financial analyst and war veteran Jack Ryan (Chris Pine). Following an ill-fated tour of duty in Afghanistan, he is recruited by CIA agent Harper (Kevin Costner) to head a covert operation on Wall Street by looking for monetary links to terrorist organizations. It doesn’t take long for the patriotic protagonist to discover one spearheaded by Russian entrepreneur Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh). This involves a plot to alert his sleeper cells within the US, set off a major terrorist attack and ruin the American economy. Ryan is sent undercover to Moscow to learn the truth about Cherevin… but his identity could be blown after the unexpected arrival of his girlfriend, Cathy (Keira Knightley).<\/p>\n

Part of the problem is the “new” Ryan character himself. As written, he’s so earnest and one note that he comes across as far too naive to be an undercover agent involved in international espionage. In fact, he’s as old-fashioned a hero as it gets. And despite no official training for his new position, he’s able to beat down assassins. It never truly feels as if we’re watching a character out of his depth and struggling to survive. His significant other, Cathy, isn’t particularly well written either. When she’s incorporated into the CIA’s big scheme with even less training than Ryan, it can’t help but feel a bit preposterous. Even worse, her character ultimately isn’t used as much more than a damsel in distress.<\/p>\n

\"JackRyanSMALL\"<\/a>At least the villain fares much better. He’s larger than life, but Branagh’s Cherevin is by far the best developed and most interesting character of the bunch. Veering between casual chit chat and startling bursts of violence, it’s a shame he isn’t given a more dynamic story to flex his muscles in. And as for the action itself, it’s capably handled (a hand to hand fight between two characters is well shot and edited) and the Moscow locations, including the Red Square, are nice to look at. <\/p>\n

Stranger still, despite the character update and modern day revamp, you wouldn’t know that the story itself wasn’t written by Tom Clancy circa 1986. The decade may be different, but it’s simply another tale of evil Russians out to take down the USA. Frankly, the film itself comes across as a bit paranoid in the process and the screenwriters would have been wiser to introduce more international characters who aren’t mostly members of sleeper cells out to destroy America. <\/p>\n

To be fair, this is passable enough as light, escapist entertainment. It’s just completely predictable, old-fashioned and never elevates itself above being merely average. While Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit<\/em> may be a new reboot, it somehow manages to already feel obsolete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been more than ten years since the last onscreen adventure of Jack Ryan. And it’s not difficult to see why. Author Tom Clancy’s creation was a product of a different time… specifically, the Cold War. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit does its best to reinvigorate the franchise and is an undeniably good-looking and fast-paced movie. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[176,4320,10119,11549,11589,11617,14317,14321,21055,23007],"class_list":["post-6038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-176","tag-chris-pine","tag-jack-ryan-shadow-recruit","tag-keira-knightley","tag-kenneth-branagh","tag-kevin-costner","tag-movie-review","tag-movie-reviews-2","tag-the-hunt-for-red-october","tag-tom-clancy"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6038\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}