A U.S solider by the name of Jack Ryan, that became inspired to enlist by the events of 9/11, gets injured in combat. After being told that he will never be able to serve in the army again, he gets a second chance to become a covert C.I.A analyst from a high ranked C.I.A agent named William Harper (Kevin Costner). He then discovers that a Russian millionaire named Victor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh) could potentially be in charge of a terrorist attack meant to bring down the U.S. economy.

Chris Pine does a good enough job as Jack Ryan. Apart from one scene where he gives a very believable performance when he reacts to using self defense for the first time, it’s not very noteworthy. The same goes for Keira Knightly as Jack’s wife Cathy, and Kevin Costner, nothing really stuck out there. Though I will admit, I thought that Kenneth Branagh was fun to watch as the stereotypical Russian villain.

If you’re looking for looking for a movie with a lot of action in it you will probably be disappointed because it focuses more on the conspiracy then it does on the action scenes. Though I really didn’t mind this considering how shaky the camera gets when ever there’s a fight scene. This is a problem because it makes it really difficult to make out what’s going on.

The pacing was fine, the movie went by pretty fast. There really wasn’t a time that I remember where the move started to drag on or anything like that. It never really got that boring either, despite not really doing anything that new.

The movie does have some problems. First, the characters are really boring, the only one that was any fun to watch was Cherevin. As for everyone else, they were all just plain boring. Next, the film doesn’t do anything interesting or even noteworthy. It’s just a really generic movie that wouldn’t be remembered by anyone if it weren’t for the fact that it’s based off of a book.

Another problem with the movie is the camera during fight scenes. Now, like I said, there aren’t many fight scenes. In fact, their are only two in the entire movie. But this is still very irritating and I don’t understand why directors still use this style. I’ve never heard anyone say they like it, so why do people still use it in movies? Anyway, those are the problems I had with the movie. Now for the pros.

To begin with, everyone did an adequate job playing their characters. Plus, the pacing was very good. Also, it does an alright job at keeping your attention.

Overall, Jack Ryan is an okay movie that is pretty entertaining. However, It’s not very noteworthy. It’s a very generic conspiracy that will keep your attention, but there are probably much more interesting films you could watch instead. If you have some time to kill, I suppose there are worse ways to do it, but if not, maybe it’s best to wait till you can rent it.

By Steve Austin