*I wont spoil any twists…

IMDB Synopsis

Seeking justice for the murder of his pregnant wife, an elite Navy SEAL uncovers a covert plot that threatens to engulf the United States and Russia in an all-out war.

“You better hope he doesn’t survive.”

The Jack Ryan series of books, movies, and now tv shows has a laundry list of side characters that has spawned a mini universe. John Clark is one of those characters, and in the movies he has been played by the likes of Willem Defoe and Liev Schreiber. Amazon seems to be going all in on this universe with their hit TV series and now a movie about the character of John Clark.

At the beginning of the movie we are introduced to John Clark (Michael B. Jordan) and we learn he is happily married and expecting a child after coming home and retiring from the military. However, his past of course has caught up with him and someone is picking off members of his team one by one. Unfortunately his wife gets caught in the crossfire, and so beings our classic revenge story. John will do whatever it takes to bring the people responsible, even disobeying and fighting numerous CIA officials. He does uncover a much larger plot though and it seems to set up further stories down the line which could be interesting.

The cool parts of this movie mainly stem from the action scenes. There is a ton of good action with mostly using practical effects, which makes the movie feel much more real. There is a plane scene that feels like a massive scale but you can tell how practical it is and it feels like something I would have loved in a theater.

The main issue I had though was the script was just not good. Which is weird because you see a name like Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water) on there and you expect greatness, but something was off here. It felt honestly like a bad Law and Order episode sometimes when the characters were talking, and I have never even seen Law and Order. So when you are watching this movie you can really enjoy the action but do not expect a compelling story.

Stock Watch

Stock Neutral – Michael B. Jordan

MBJ is one of the biggest stars in the world as evidence from his appearances in the Marvel Universe, the Creed Franchise, Friday Night Lights and much more. This is really his first action franchise and I am excited to see where it goes. As far as his star power though I do not think this performance will move the needle for him that much. Maybe if this universe and his role gets bigger than we can reassess, but for now he continues to be one of our brightest stars.

Stock Up – Jodie Turner-Smith

She has a presence that you just do not always see on the screen. When I saw her in Queen & Slim it felt like we had something with her and she did not prove me wrong here. She uses her height very well and like I said makes her presence felt in every scene. I would love to see a spinoff of her character, or just see her continue in the universe.

*A couple other tidbits

• Guy Pearce loves just showing up as the basically nameless and monotonous bad guy doesn’t he?
• Jamie Bell had such a nothing part in this it almost made me feel bad for him. Hopefully that gets rectified in the sequel.
• If they give us a John Krasinsinki, MBJ crossover then this universe would be fully cooking.

With such good writers and great source material you would think you might get a more compelling story, however that is not what we got here. We got a semi boring story with some great action set pieces, which for a streaming movie you can just pop on, those are not the worst characteristics you could have. I do look forward however to seeing where they can go with this.

Juice Rating:

*You can find my 2021 Movie Rankings here.

*You can find all of my Movie Ratings here.

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