Time: 105 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Violence
Cast:
Chris Pine as Jack Ryan
Keira Knightley as Dr. Catherine “Cathy” Muller
Kevin Costner as Thomas Harper
Kenneth Branagh as Viktor Cherevin
Director: Kenneth Branagh

I actually remember Shadow Recruit being one of the earlier Jack Ryan movies I watched, if not my first one. Revisiting it, it’s certainly not one of the better movies in that series, far from it actually, but I still enjoyed it.

Shadow Recruit, in contrast to its predecessors, isn’t based on an existing Jack Ryan book. Instead, it is a reboot which serves as an origin story for the title character. Unfortunately, it’s a rather generic and predictable spy thriller which isn’t all that engaging or interesting. The pacing was fine, but aspects of the story felt a bit rushed. It moves too quickly for an origin story, and Ryan’s backstory is especially breezed through. There is a moment early on in which Ryan has to kill someone for the first time, certainly a pivotal moment for the character. A couple of scenes later though, he quickly transitions to a typical action hero and it feels like the development was rushed.

There is a great cast involved, unfortunately they are largely wasted. Chris Pine is the next actor to take on the role of Jack Ryan following on from Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck. He is charismatic and likable, and he plays his part well. However, his Ryan is by far the most generic version of the character. Keira Knightley plays Pine’s love interest and she works fine too, the two have good enough chemistry. Kevin Costner is largely just used for exposition but he is good as Ryan’s CIA handler. The main antagonist is a generic Russian villain, who was definitely underutilized but elevated somewhat by Kenneth Branagh. He does a lot with his scenes, but not enough to make him all that memorable (certainly in contrast to Branagh’s other Russian villain role in Tenet).

Kenenth Branagh serves as director here, and while the movie is completely made, it’s probably one of the weaker films I’ve seen from him. The scenes of tension are good and the action is fine, but they were often undercut by some shaky cam and jump cut editing.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a forgettable and generic action thriller, and is very likely the worst of the Jack Ryan movies. However, it is decently made and the cast are good.