I like Jack Ryan. My favorite Jack Ryan was Alec Baldwin, the silly fool who decided to do a comic movie – The Shadow- instead of doing a sequel to The Hunt for Red October. I thought he was intelligent and a little green, but man enough to hold his own on a sub. Shoot he held his own acting against the great Sean Connery who does great in this role. After Mr. Baldwin then came Harrison Ford who was much older and then the franchise killer– Ben Affleck. Since his turn as the CIA agent who has a PhD the movie franchise has lay dormant… Just like Daredevil and Kevin Smith movies, and I’m a fan of both. Now comes Captain Kirk, I mean Chris Pine, to breath new life into it. Sort of like Daniel Craig after too much Pierce Brosnan, we will try and lift it back from the dead.

But when they rebooted Star Trek they had a team that blended well. It wasn’t just Chris Pine as Kirk that made this a hit, but Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban and Zoey Saldana that worked together against a good – not great villain in Eric Bana’s Nero- that was entertaining. Throw in a cameo by Leanord Nimoy and you have a film worth watching and a rebooted franchise.

The good news for Jack Ryan is that yes it has Chris Pine as the lead character but also Keira Knightly as his shady wife and Kenneth Branagh not only as his Shakespearean trained Russian bad guy but also as the director. Rumor has it that Knightly beat out Kate Beckinsale for this role. That is a different movie indeed. As for Branagh he did direct Thor and Much Ado about nothing but he also did Iron Man 2… He also played the villain in Wild Wild West which we all know was a debacle. But the biggest negative factor is the movie killer himself, Kevin Costner. He may have single handily canceled out all the good in this movie. I had a hard time watching the trailer because he was in it. And it’s not a small role, he is Jack’s handler. So I don’t know if this movie can be saved.

The trailer looks like the film has a meaningful not by the numbers plot with plenty of action and Chris Pine can do well with a good plot (same with Keira Knightly). But Kevin Costner? I’m just going to put even money on this and say it can go either way. The trailer doesn’t do enough to persuade or dissuade me. This movie trailer is an enigma.