"The Sum of All Fears," based on the # 1 New York Times bestselling novel by Tom Clancy, features Ben Affleck as Jack Ryan, a historian who somehow or another, by writing a paper on the new Russian leader, is spotted by the CIA Deputy Director (Morgan Freeman).
"The Sum of All Fears" is even more powerful in this day and age, but nevertheless, it stands nowhere near as great as the novel, which is usually the case with films taken from books. In the following I will point out some differences that weren't crucial to my opinion on the film, but just interesting.
The film is a prequel to the other Jack Ryan films, while the novel was a sequel to the other books. In the book, a lost Israeli nuclear warhead is picked up by Arabs some twenty years after the war it was lost in. In the film, a modern-age Hitler is attempting to begin turmoil between Russia and the U.S. with the nuke -- there are no arabs. Also in the novel, the way the bomb was sneaked into the superbowl was much more interesting than the method they used in the film. Also, in the book, Morgan Freeman's character was a dumb man who hid throughout the novel. In the film he's a hero.
There's countless other things that don't really matter, but still made me a bit disappointed in the film.
The film was in no way awful, and is the best Tom Clancy movie to date, but it's still not as good as the book.
3.5/5 stars --
John Ulmer
"The Sum of All Fears" is even more powerful in this day and age, but nevertheless, it stands nowhere near as great as the novel, which is usually the case with films taken from books. In the following I will point out some differences that weren't crucial to my opinion on the film, but just interesting.
The film is a prequel to the other Jack Ryan films, while the novel was a sequel to the other books. In the book, a lost Israeli nuclear warhead is picked up by Arabs some twenty years after the war it was lost in. In the film, a modern-age Hitler is attempting to begin turmoil between Russia and the U.S. with the nuke -- there are no arabs. Also in the novel, the way the bomb was sneaked into the superbowl was much more interesting than the method they used in the film. Also, in the book, Morgan Freeman's character was a dumb man who hid throughout the novel. In the film he's a hero.
There's countless other things that don't really matter, but still made me a bit disappointed in the film.
The film was in no way awful, and is the best Tom Clancy movie to date, but it's still not as good as the book.
3.5/5 stars --
John Ulmer