Jack Ryan: Ghost War is a made-for-streaming continuation of an Amazon TV series, with John Krasinski continuing the CIA analyst role. The four-season show establishes the character and world, reducing the need for the movie to reboot everything from scratch. This approach also avoids uncertainty about which career stage Ryan should begin in, allowing the film to place him mid-career without requiring multiple box office successes to reach that point. The film stands alone despite prior episodes, and it is more coherent than earlier movie versions. However, the movie’s 105-minute runtime leaves its purpose unclear, and its story feels more coherent than competent.
"For years, author Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan character was a fixture of the multiplex, with movies providing reluctant-leading-man-of-action opportunities for Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine. Most of them were hits. (Sorry, Chris!) In that context, it might seem a little low-rent that the newest character's newest adventure, Jack Ryan: Ghost War, is actually a made-for-streaming continuation of an Amazon TV series, where John Krasinski takes over the CIA analyst role."
"But there are potential advantages to this approach, too: four seasons of the show can establish the character and his world, relieving the movie version of the full reboot burden. (No small thing for a familiar character who's nonetheless been played by five different guys.) In particular, the existence of the hit show eliminates the standard waffling over what stage of Ryan's career he should start in. Let the TV show handle the salad-days stuff, and the movie can join him mid-career without requiring several box office successes to get there."
"And to its credit, Jack Ryan: Ghost War manages to stand alone quite well despite the preceding 30 episodes of set-up. (I certainly don't remember them all with crystal clarity, and I was never lost on a plot level.) Less fortuitously, it's more coherent than competent, especially compared with the previous movie versions. That might not seem like a fair fight, but Ghost War does position itself as some kind of movie after four seasons of serialized television; there must be some reason for this new framework, whether it's a bigger budget, a more pulse-pounding story or a chance to put Krasinski alongside his predecessors."
"By the end of its 105 minutes, though, the movie seems to eliminate the most obvious possibilities, and its reason for being hangs in the air. Ghost War rejoins Ryan, who has quit the CIA and landed a job with a hedge fund, hoping for a shot at the normal life his"
Read at www.theguardian.com
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