10 Major 2014 Films That Will Probably Kill Their Franchise
5. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Nothing betrays a studio's intentions more than taking an existing franchise and changing things up so the lead characters name is your title. They may be trying hard to make a good movie, but a small part is desperate for some brand recognition in anticipation of a franchise. John Carter, Jack Reacher and now Jack Ryan have all done this to varying degrees of success. In the former two cases it was perplexing; as the first big screen outing for the respective characters it serves only to limit your audience (a plain name an enticing film does not make). Jack Ryan at least has a history on screen, being played by three actors in four films previously. Shadow Recruit, however, was the first to put the characters name front and centre. Based on the character created by Tom Clancy (but not on any particular book, instead adapting an existing, originally Ryan-less, script), the aim with Kenneth Brannaghs entry seems to have been to ignite a Bond-esque franchise where consistency between actors, plots etc. are unimportant. The film, which was very average, performed very averagely across the board. And although the producers were keen to talk up a sequel in the furore of release, since then everythings gone quiet. So long Ryan.
