Most critics come down in favour, and the praise clusters in two places. The first is the plotting: reviewers describe an intricate, politically literate conspiracy that keeps its Washington and Colombian strands moving in parallel without losing the thread. The second is the Bogota ambush, which more than one review singles out as the standout set piece and the point where the film earns its length. Harrison Ford’s Jack Ryan is consistently well received, with Radio Times calling the performance commanding and Empire finding it compelling.
The reservations are about pace and payoff. Variety finds the excitement only intermittently thrilling and the final action scene flat and routine, while Radio Times thinks the film is slow to gather momentum before the political connections fall into place. The spread is fairly wide. The one outright dissent comes from Time Out, which finds this third Jack Ryan outing dispiriting, though the reasoning survives only in outline.