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I just got back from the film, had dinner, and after thinking about it, I give two big thumbs up to this movie.
I have read and enjoyed all of Tom Clancy's novels, and sampled the Op Center and Netforce series (I decided not to read those as they were inferior to Clancy's own works). I have seen the three prior Jack Ryan movies and enjoyed all of them. My favorite movie remains The Hunt for Red October, and now my next favorite is The Sum of All Fears even though that is my least favorite Jack Ryan book, after the truely awfull Rainbow Six (which is not a Ryan novel, rather it is the second John Clark novel).
The rest of you are going to have to get over Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford - although they are both better actors than Ben Affleck. You may as well quit resenting the fact that the plot changed between the book and the film, as the changes made for a better film, and were ultimately required because the media are very different. Heck, the reason Red October is the best film is that the book is a third the size of Clancy's later works, and thus lost the least detail in the transformation to film.
Much has been said about the fact that the villians in this film were changed from Muslim extremeists to Neo-Fascists, and I believe the plot suffered because of it. However, Clancy as Executive Producer has to have been the one that made such a change - it's his film, and must be the way he wanted it to be, although there are now but a few superficial resemblances between book and film. For the record, I don't care for this change, but think it makes little difference in the end.
The plot is tight, the acting and directing and photography are very good, and it's an extremely suspensefull film. However, the months-long plot of the novel has been condensed down to a few days which get summarized in two hours, but it works. I sat in my usual seat near the front, and noticed some film grain that's probably going to be visible in the DVD, it was so pronounced. Unfortunately I didn't see it in my favorite theater, instead I saw it in a theater I don't much respect for sound quality and focus (cylindrical screen not a torus, as well). So I will refrain from saying much about sound and focus, other than there were no obvious flaws.
The special effects are some excellant miniatures work - and aside from an anemic nuclear mushroom cloud, are pretty good.
Now for a bit of an unplesant topic. Prior to the movie's debut, many different movie reviews were published, and a great many of these were bogus, written by people who had read the book but not seen the film. After viewing the film, you'll understand why this is obviously true. My point being, don't be discouraged by such negative reviews from people who had not seen the film.
Give this film a chance - it deserves a visit to the theater.
Gary
I have read and enjoyed all of Tom Clancy's novels, and sampled the Op Center and Netforce series (I decided not to read those as they were inferior to Clancy's own works). I have seen the three prior Jack Ryan movies and enjoyed all of them. My favorite movie remains The Hunt for Red October, and now my next favorite is The Sum of All Fears even though that is my least favorite Jack Ryan book, after the truely awfull Rainbow Six (which is not a Ryan novel, rather it is the second John Clark novel).
The rest of you are going to have to get over Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford - although they are both better actors than Ben Affleck. You may as well quit resenting the fact that the plot changed between the book and the film, as the changes made for a better film, and were ultimately required because the media are very different. Heck, the reason Red October is the best film is that the book is a third the size of Clancy's later works, and thus lost the least detail in the transformation to film.
Much has been said about the fact that the villians in this film were changed from Muslim extremeists to Neo-Fascists, and I believe the plot suffered because of it. However, Clancy as Executive Producer has to have been the one that made such a change - it's his film, and must be the way he wanted it to be, although there are now but a few superficial resemblances between book and film. For the record, I don't care for this change, but think it makes little difference in the end.
The plot is tight, the acting and directing and photography are very good, and it's an extremely suspensefull film. However, the months-long plot of the novel has been condensed down to a few days which get summarized in two hours, but it works. I sat in my usual seat near the front, and noticed some film grain that's probably going to be visible in the DVD, it was so pronounced. Unfortunately I didn't see it in my favorite theater, instead I saw it in a theater I don't much respect for sound quality and focus (cylindrical screen not a torus, as well). So I will refrain from saying much about sound and focus, other than there were no obvious flaws.
The special effects are some excellant miniatures work - and aside from an anemic nuclear mushroom cloud, are pretty good.
Now for a bit of an unplesant topic. Prior to the movie's debut, many different movie reviews were published, and a great many of these were bogus, written by people who had read the book but not seen the film. After viewing the film, you'll understand why this is obviously true. My point being, don't be discouraged by such negative reviews from people who had not seen the film.
Give this film a chance - it deserves a visit to the theater.
Gary