I was reluctantly pulled back into the Krasinski universe of Jack Ryan. I enjoyed the TV series well enough, thanks in large part to supporting players Wendell Pierce and Michael Kelly, who do much of the heavy lifting here too.
Unfortunately, Ghost War feels like a "the gang's all here" reunion more than a standalone film. The whole thing has the compressed feel of a television season squeezed into two hours, rushing through plot points that might have had room to breathe in episodic form.
It's perfectly watchable, but never quite finds its own identity. Krasinski ends up stranded somewhere between James Bond and Ethan Hunt—competent enough, but lacking the charisma, style, or spectacle to stand alongside either.
That said, I watched it on a flight somewhere over the North Atlantic, probably not far from Greenland, and that may be the ideal venue. It's exactly the kind of movie that makes a few hours disappear at 35,000 feet without demanding much of your attention. By the time the plane lands, you've mostly forgotten it—and that's not necessarily a criticism.
