“Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” Review

The year 2014 is off to a great start with “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit,” a fast-paced spy film that delivers plenty of thrills.

Jack Ryan (Chris Pine, “Star Trek”) is a CIA analyst working for a company on Wall Street. He looks at the various international market trends and reports anything suspicious to the agency.

The story starts when he sees a Russian account is doing something that needs immediate attention. He goes to Russia to investigate. Ryan thinks a man named Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”) is coordinating an act of terror that would kill America’s economy.

Meanwhile Ryan is having problems with his girlfriend, Cathy Muller (Keira Knightly). He cannot tell her that he is part of the CIA, and she is getting suspicious that he is having an affair.

At first this seems like a forced, clichéd plot point. It is something that has been done in other movies like “The Incredibles,” and it is frustrating to watch. There is no questioning that it will be resolved soon. However, this lack of communication becomes relevant as it leads to Muller having a bigger role, and this leads to the story becoming intense.

This was directed by Kenneth Branagh, who is known for his work in “Thor.” Before that film, he was known for Shakespeare. I am not saying this film is Shakespeare at all. The script and dialogue are pretty weak at parts. There are several holes in the plot, and the beginning seems hastily thrown together. What I am saying is Shakespeare plays are known for portraying well-defined inter-personal relationships.

The relationship between Muller and Ryan is not the love of the centuries, but it is developed just enough to where you care about them. This is important because some very suspenseful scenes involve the couple either working together or being apart. One scene in particular had me at the edge of my seat, biting my nails in anticipation of what would happen next.

I really like Chris Pine as Jack Ryan. He brings a sense of confidence and likability to the character. It is easy to care about Ryan because he is well defined as a hero. Every motivation he has is because he wants to help people.

My main problem with this film is the camera shakes a lot during action scenes. This is nothing new. It is present in movies such as “The Borne Identity” and “Batman Begins.” It is not enough to make me hate these movies, but it is annoying because it makes the action difficult to see. If the camera would just be still, those scenes would be so much more effective!

I also wish the character, Aleksandr Borovsky (Alec Utgoff), would have been more relevant. He is a somewhat minor villain who has the face of a harmless young man, but he is actually very ruthless in the few scenes in which he appears. The role he plays ends up being important, but the character is not given enough exposure to where anyone cares about him.

I give this film four and a half out of five stars. It is a generic spy film, but it has enough intense moments to make up for its flaws. I recommend seeing a matinee showing of this, but I do not think it would be a disappointment seeing at full price.

Content: Rated PG-13. There is a moderate amount of language including two F-words. There is action violence with no gore, though there is a scene where it shows a character who is scraped up after an accident. 

For more details on how I rate films, visit http://criticalchristopher.blogspot.com/2014/01/defining-rating-criteria.html