Critic Reviews

It's a technically fine film that doesn't do anything especially inventive, but remains capable of telling a concise story with clear action. Fans of the Jack Ryan show should definitely check it out, and appreciators of military action and espionage will probably find plenty to love, too. For everyone else, Jack Ryan: Ghost War could have been something bigger and better.

The film aims to scale things up with bigger stakes, a broader canvas and more immediate danger. But in doing so, it loses sight of what made this version of the character work.

Ghost War wants to feel like a bigger, sharper return for the franchise, but it too often settles for the safest version of itself.

The director, Andrew Bernstein, keeps the globe-trotting plot, which Krasinski formulated with the screenwriter Noah Oppenheim (“A House of Dynamite”), galloping along until a final reckoning back where all the nastiness started.

At least Krasinski, doing his part yet again as the likable Everyman, gives “Ghost War” enough of a moral center and steely presence to stick with the dad-movie narrative.

The gifted John Krasinski can do anything, except turn the livewire CIA operative he played for four TV seasons into something other than a pale shadow of his former self trying to pass muster in an ill-conceived two-hour movie.

Despite an abundance of action, “Jack Ryan: Ghost War” never comes to life.

Sadly, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War – what a mouthful of a title that is – emerges as a bland action vehicle shorn of wit or vitality.

It all makes one wonder why any of the original team returned for a sequel that not only undoes some of the far more impactful emotional beats of the final season but also leaves audiences in limbo about whether they even want to see Jack Ryan suit up for another disaster to solve.

The movie does set up potential for a continuing movie franchise. Mostly, though, Jack Ryan: Ghost War feels like a sad state of affairs for the world’s dads (and dads at heart), who deserve to see airport-novel espionage brought to less chintzy life.