Examining its existence in isolation, is there a blockbuster to come along in the last decade that’s proven to be more completely and utterly pointless than Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit?
The proposed reinvention of the famed literary creation was the reboot of a reboot that followed a trilogy that had already undergone a recasting, with Ben Affleck’s The Sum of All Fears taking Ryan back to his roots after Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford had headlined The Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger, and Patriot Games.
For the second time in a dozen years, we caught the title hero at the beginning of his career, with Chris Pine stepping in to headline a movie that for all intents and purposes could be described as unstoppably mediocre on every level. $135 million at the box office on a $60 million budget? Not a flop, but not a hit. A 55 percent Rotten Tomatoes score? Solid, if unspectacular.
It’s just kind of there, which isn’t what you want when the cast features director and big bad Kenneth Branagh marshaling an ensemble that also featured Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, Gemma Chan, Colm Feore, and countless others among its starry ensemble. However, it’s an action thriller with big names, so a streaming renaissance can never be discounted.
True to form, the reboot that ended up getting rebooted itself through Prime Video’s Jack Ryan has infiltrated Netflix’s global most-watched charts, per FlixPatrol. It’s not a bad film, nor is it a particularly memorable one, which appears to be enough.
