Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

(M) ★★★

Director: Kenneth Branagh.

Cast: Chris Pine, Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Costner, Keira Knightley.

"Why, yes, I'd love to see your ship."

IS there still room in the spy landscape for Jack Ryan?

With Bond, Bourne and Ethan Hunt hogging the limelight with adrenalised stunts and a surfeit of style, is anyone really clamouring for a second reboot of Tom Clancy's canny agent?

On the strength of this so-so re-invention, it would seem Ryan doesn't really have the goods to match it with the big boys of the espionage genre. Aside from some sporadic moments, this feels drab and formulaic when compared to the likes of 007 or Tom Cruise's impossible missions.

It's certainly not a bad film - although the cliche-ridden first act makes for a worrying start (at least that's over and dealt with very quickly). It's just that the whole thing is mildly entertaining without being anything special or impressive.

It's not really the fault of director and villain Branagh, nor Pine (who is following in the footsteps of Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck) as Ryan. Nor is it even the fault of scriptwriters Adam Cozad and David Koepp.

It's just that Ryan has always seemed like an every-spy, and this film doesn't change that. He does what any secret agent does, does it well, but never stands out, nor does he have particularly defining personality traits or skill sets (aside from being good at everything). He's just a spy. He could be any spy. In fact, Shadow Recruit could quite easily be not a Jack Ryan film - change a couple of character names and it's an origin story for a brand new franchise focusing on a new nondescript CIA agent.

The only real link to Clancy's novels, character names aside, is Ryan's background (the film is not based on any of Clancy's books - just the character). As per the books, Ryan is injured in a tour of duty as a marine and takes a job on Wall Street while secretly working for the CIA searching for potential terror threats via financial signposts.

From there, we're whisked away to generic spy territory - in this case, Moscow - where Ryan goes head-to-head with Viktor Cherevin (played by a well accented Branagh), who is suspected of having millions secreted in hidden accounts.

This sets up a couple of pro forma but mildly enjoyable set pieces - the office break-in, the white-knuckle car chase - before the film heads for home with a terrorist threat and a ticking bomb countdown.

With a few tweaks, this could have been Die Hard 6, or Bond 26, or Bourne 5 or M:I 5. And any of those tweaks would have given this film a style or a vibe beyond the formulaic because those characters are well defined, whether it be via their charisma, attitude or abilities.

What saves the day here is the fact Shadow Recruit is an origin story. The clumsy clichés of the first act aside, seeing Ryan on his first mission and completely out of his depth - particularly in a desperate bathroom brawl - is intriguing and makes up for the fact he is a stereotype. Pine does his best to balance the Ryan's greenness with his obvious capabilities.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit gets a tentative recommendation. It does what it does reasonably well, is smart in places, and aside from a shaky start, it's certainly never terrible. It's just that it feels like dozens of other spy films and as a result is unlikely to linger long in the memory.