Prime Video's #1 Movie Starring John Krasinski Is One of the Worst Spy Flicks of Recent Years With 40% on RT

A feature-length epilogue to the series Jack Ryan – titled Ghost War – has been released on Amazon Prime Video, and it seems that absolutely no one was waiting for it.

After four dreary seasons chronicling the daily grind of intelligence operatives, John Krasinski finally got the chance to play a bona fide movie star. The only problem is that the result is so predictable and derivative that even die-hard fans of the original show will likely struggle to find anything to celebrate.

What Is 'Jack Ryan: Ghost War' About?

After the events of the fourth season, Jack Ryan left government service to enjoy an early retirement working for a financial corporation. One morning, during his run, he crosses paths with an old acquaintance, CIA Deputy Director James, who persuades him to take on one last assignment.

Ryan must fly to Dubai to retrieve an item from a veteran British intelligence officer. Naturally, the simple mission goes awry: the Briton is killed, and Jack and his partner end up held hostage by an MI6 agent.

It soon becomes clear that Ryan is the only one who can save his CIA colleagues from supervillain Liam Crown, who is plotting a terrorist attack in the heart of London.

'Jack Ryan: Ghost War' Is Devoid of Original Ideas and Full of Genre Cliches

The problems with Ghost War begin in the first few minutes. The screenplay, co-written by Krasinski, relies on the most hackneyed trope in spy cinema: the retired operative who returns to the field for one final mission.

The movie contains every genre cliche: double agents, dark secrets from the past, drawn-out shootouts, car chases, and a protagonist who can single-handedly outwit and take down a brutal villain.

The creators make no attempt to hide the fact that they are merely recycling ideas long since chewed over by the Mission: Impossible and James Bond franchises. The only difference is that those franchises had charisma and directorial ingenuity, this flick offers only the star's inflated ego.

'Ghost War' Took All the Main Features of the Original Show and Made Them Worse

The Jack Ryan series itself, which ran for four seasons on Amazon, was never a paragon of the genre. The show resembled a cheap knockoff of Mission: Impossible, devoid of interesting action sequences, memorable antagonists, or a coherent soundtrack.

Director Andrew Bernstein's feature-film debut only exacerbated these shortcomings. The movie gets off to a dismal start and continues in the same vein right up to the final credits.

John Krasinski makes a desperate bid to steal some of the glory enjoyed by Tom Cruise or Daniel Craig, but he lacks the physical fitness and on-screen charisma to pull it off.

Ghost War is not just a bad spy movie – it's a symptom of the fatigue plaguing the entire genre, which has long been in dire need of fresh blood.

What Did Critics & Viewers Think of 'Jack Ryan: Ghost War'?

• Jack Ryan: Ghost War has 44% from critics and 40% from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes.

• On IMDb, the movie has a score of 5.8/10.

• On Letterboxd, Jack Ryan: Ghost War scored 2.5/5.0.