I have always been skeptical of books made into moves. More often than not they don't follow the book closely enough and are worse off for it. The Sum of All Fears is a prime example of this.
Admittedly SOAF is not Clancy's best novel. There were significant problems with the novel I thought which don't warrant going into here. Anyway the movie seems to have magnified these problems. The main one is the character of Clark. In the novel he is fine but in the movie there seems little point to his character. He does a lot of investigating but little reporting to a higher authority or anything of the sort. He just ran around seeming to have little impact on any of the events or the plot in general. This is emphasised when he goes to see the radioactive poisoning victim. If that wasn't the most goddam useless scene I've ever seen in a movie then I don't know what is.
Another gripe I have is with the minor details of the movie. Names for one. Why change Marcus Cabot to William Cabot? Why change Narmanov to Nimerov? There seems little point. Also the neo-nazis are a stupid idea. I know that with current sensitivities the use of Islamic terrorists wouldn't have been a good idea but the neo-nazis were a cheap way out and a stupid idea in my opinion.
Overall, a very disappointing movie. 6/10
Admittedly SOAF is not Clancy's best novel. There were significant problems with the novel I thought which don't warrant going into here. Anyway the movie seems to have magnified these problems. The main one is the character of Clark. In the novel he is fine but in the movie there seems little point to his character. He does a lot of investigating but little reporting to a higher authority or anything of the sort. He just ran around seeming to have little impact on any of the events or the plot in general. This is emphasised when he goes to see the radioactive poisoning victim. If that wasn't the most goddam useless scene I've ever seen in a movie then I don't know what is.
Another gripe I have is with the minor details of the movie. Names for one. Why change Marcus Cabot to William Cabot? Why change Narmanov to Nimerov? There seems little point. Also the neo-nazis are a stupid idea. I know that with current sensitivities the use of Islamic terrorists wouldn't have been a good idea but the neo-nazis were a cheap way out and a stupid idea in my opinion.
Overall, a very disappointing movie. 6/10