Duck Fox

Tom Clancy is probably the first author I came across who learned how to turn his many characters and storylines into franchises unto themselves. The man himself unfortunately passed away towards the end of 2013, but even now we still see people churning out high tech military thrillers with his name slapped on the cover. So it was only a matter of time before Hollywood decided to take another stab at the mythos of Clancy’s most well known hero, Jack Ryan. I’m only familiar with the Jack Ryan novels in passing and through a single read through of his debut novel, The Hunt for Red October years ago, and though they seem like excellent additions to the military thriller genre from what I’ve seen, I hesitated on the idea of a modern update to the character that so many fantastic actors had already brought to the silver screen. When you’re stepping into the shoes of legends like Alec Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October), Harrison Ford (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger) and Ben Affleck (The Sum of All Fears). And while my fears concerning the actor were mostly unfounded, as Star Trek’s Chris Pine takes on the challenge well, my fears on the story were substantiated.

Existing in the void between James Bond and Jason Bourne, Jack Ryan acts as a more down to Earth everyman. The film opens with a series of scenes providing the motivation for Jack to join what is tentatively referred to as the CIA, though the specific division remains elusive. Ryan begins as a promising student at the London School of Economics, but when his fellow students are seen flocking to the television with faces full of dread, it becomes clear what this updated story’s motivation for Jack Ryan will be: 9/11. We skip ahead in time and visit Jack as a lowly marine bonding with his fellow soldiers over sports in a helicopter flying low over the mountains of Afghanistan. Needless to say, there’s a further complication and Jack ends up in a recovery facility, flirting with his physical therapist Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley doing a terrible American accent). He also encounters the mysterious Navy general, William Harper, who hints at being connected to the CIA, and eventually comes out and request Jack’s help as an economic analyst, working at a white shoe Wall Street firm on paper, but secretly working for the CIA.

                 

From there we jump ahead 10 years, and Jack catches wind of a conspiracy involving Russians and the collapse of the United States. If you feel like you’ve heard that entire plot before, then rest assured, you have. It’s not that the plot makes no sense or is full of dizzying plot holes, but the fact is that there’s absolutely nothing clever about it. Even the way Jack goes about finding out how the Russians have inserted their sleeper agent (cause there’s always a sleeper agent…) and rooting out the plot to cripple the economy is so obvious you have to wonder if all the other CIA analysts had been systemically poisoning their brains by huffing glue and so this slightly above average intellect guy was their only hope to save the US. Make no mistake, none of the mediocre dialogue is down to the actors, who all create believable characters. Well, with the exception of Keira Knightley, whose awkward smiles and comical accent are cringe inducing. The problem lies in the insistence on positioning Jack against Viktor Cherevin, Kenneth Branagh’s menacing Russian businessman and ex-intelligence officer, without any real depth being added to either character. Sure, Jack has marital problems and Viktor has a bone to pick with the US over losing family in the Cold War, but none of these factors act as anything more than contrivances that are sloppily tied up throughout the film. The CIA also seems particularly incompetent when it comes to anticipating threats, and I was seriously hoping there would be a mole in the agency just so I wouldn't have to believe everyone there was so stupid.

There are a host of cool gadgets and some slick, stylized tradecraft, but nothing impressive enough to think twice about. That being said, there are some competent action sequences, even if the initiation of the sequence doesn’t make sense (an epic car chase is predicated upon one of the baddie’s deciding to keep a cellphone and obvious tracking device in the vehicle with him). I watched it in IMAX 2D and I also have to say that this is one of the first films where a bullet sounds as visceral as it probably does in reality. Jack also fights like a marine turned analyst—using his wits and reacting out of sheer panic more often than cooly coordinating with his opponents in complex martial arts maneuvers. The way he uses the environment is pretty awesome too, and really makes you feel for him more than any of the other fearless, chiseled embodiments of machismo dominating other action flicks. 

Overall, Jack Ryan had a lot of promise but ends up squandering it by playing the same old spy thriller beats. It’s a shame that this is probably going to be the last film Clancy could have played a part in bringing to the big screen. Hopefully, if the franchise ends up continuing, they figure out a better way to pay homage to the legendary scribe.

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