THE SUM OF ALL FEARS (2002)

Completely disregarding the first three Jack Ryan films, THE SUM OF ALL FEARS casts Ben Affleck as a young CIA analyst who is an expert on a lesser known Russian figure (Ciaran Hinds) who is suddenly announced as the new Russian president, after the old one unexpectedly kicks the bucket.  Because of this Ryan is summoned by CIA Director (Morgan Freeman).  At the same time, the Nazis get their hands on a nuclear bomb.  Soon, tensions rise between America and Russia, so it's up to Jack Ryan to save the day.

I really enjoyed the first three Jack Ryan films, but TSOAF just didn't have the same magic to it.  Not only was Affleck unable to fully portray character first played excellently by Alec Baldwin and then perfected by Harrison Ford, but the story didn't feel very original.  Blah, blah, blah, missing nuclear bomb, yelling and posturing, helicopter crashing, fast typing...I don't know, the supporting cast was really good (except for Ryan's girlfriend, she was boring), but the direction was so bland and the story so played out that there was little tension.

At the end of the day, THE SUM OF ALL FEARS made money at the box office and it is watchable, but it's easy to see why this reboot failed to garner any sequels.

Part 1 - The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Part 2 - Patriot Games (1992)
Part 3 - Clear and Present Danger (1994)
Reboot 2 - Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

JOHN CARTER (2012)

Civil War-era soldier John Carter finds himself on the run from some Indians.  He's holed up in a cave when suddenly a funny looking dude appears and tries to kill Carter with a knife.  Carter beats the crap out of the guy and accidentally transports himself to Mars with the odd amulet the man was holding.  Once on Mars, John finds that because of the difference in gravity on Mars he's now superstrong and can jump super fucking high.  Added to this, John gets himself involved with an ongoing conflict between the three biggest groups on Mars...mainly due to the fact that the daughter of the blue group is hot as fuck!

As far as entertainment goes, JOHN CARTER is a good watch, but despite all of the bizarre creatures and action-packed sequences I still just felt kinda "blah" about the whole thing.  The biggest things that could have turned this into something more promising would have been: 1) different director.  I love FINDING NEMO and WALL-E is one of the greatest films of all time, but Stanton was just not the man for this job. 2) don't make Carter so depressing. 3) make Carter less indestructible. 4) make the Tharks less cartoonish and more threatening. 5) streamline the script.  There was way too much stuff going on.

Not a great film or a bad film, just merely a mediocre one.  That said, the ending was the best part and I probably would watch a sequel just to find out what happened.