I loved the Clancy books and have seen The Hunt for Red October a hundred times. I really liked almost all of the Clancy movie adaptations (except The Sum of All Fears). This prequel introduces us to the young Jack Ryan.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Keira Knightley, Kenneth Branagh) – First, there was Bond. The first knock-off might have been Matt Helm (Dean Martin). In the ensuing years, we have had many spies (serious and funny) and multiple Bonds. Then came Matt Damon as Jason Bourne and his successor/predecessor played by Jeremy Renner). The latest entrance into the spy who didn’t come in from the cold is Jack Ryan, the reinvented analyst-turned-spy-turned action hero.
Tom Clancy may be turning over in his grave a mere four months after his death at age 66. Jack Ryan, Clancy’s hero from numerous novels and a whole set of spy-fis (The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears), was always a reluctant operative. In this prequel, Ryan is introduced to us as a brave lieutenant in the Marines who didn’t finish his PhD. We find him in a helicopter in Afghanistan; all full of himself and trying to convince his commanding officer to reads his latest intelligence report. Boom! The helicopter is hit.
In Hunt for Red October, we learned that Ryan “went down in a chopper in the Med and did his last year at the Academy from his hospital bed.” Not so fast. In Shadow Recruit, Ryan goes down in Afghanistan, barely survives, lands in the hospital, and meets his future doctor wife, Kathy (Keira Knightley here, Anne Archer in the Harrison Ford Ryan days, and Bridget Moynahan in the awful Ben Affleck Ryan period). He also meets Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner), a CIA case officer, who has learned everything about the young analyst. Ryan gets recruited, sent back to grad school, lands in a Wall Street firm, and looks for financial conspiracies. Sounds boring but at least it is consistent with the Ryan biography. He uncovers a Russian plot to take down the global economy.
The rest of the film is all Ryan-goes-Bourne. It is action-packed, bullet-riddled, and camera rattling. Pine, who specializes in prequels (after all, he was Captain Kirk before Kirk was a Captain or Admiral), is a fine lethal spy. He is credible, runs fast, is moderately reluctant, efficient and effective. He’s no Sean Connery though.
Like every Bond movie, there is a one-dimensional bad guy. The Russian is played by Kenneth Branagh, who also directed the film. Branagh is a great actor and a very capable director. He is awfully good here. Knightley is largely wasted but handles the American accent deftly. Costner is credible as Harper. With him, what you see is what you get: a popular, modestly talented actor who looks good. But this is Pine’s movie, and he carries it well.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a fine spy thriller with lots of action and plenty of noise. It is a fine way to spend a weekend afternoon if you have seen all the Bond and Bourne films.