“You know his name”. That’s the tagline emblazoned across Matt Damon’s face on the poster for his and director Paul Greengrass’ franchise revival Jason Bourne. After having seen this 9-year later sequel now, I think a more appropriate slogan would have been “You know this movie”, as what we have here is a sequel you’ve actually seen before – I guess you could say it’s Bourne again. Sigh.
With The Bourne Supremacy having wrapped up the primary narrative arc for our titular amnesiac government superspy by giving him back his memories, Damon and Greengrass famously said that they were done with the character as there’s no more story left to tell. And despite this unexpected cinematic effort to prove their former selves to the contrary and revitalize the franchise after the misfire of the Jeremy Renner led The Bourne Legacy spinoff, I’m going to have to side with their earlier assessment.
Gone is the status quo-upsetting grand conspiracies of the previous Damon-headlined films and instead we get Bourne drawn out of nearly a decade’s worth of hiding when erstwhile Girl Friday turned Julian Assange-type hacker Nicky Parsons (Julia Styles) discovers a secret about Bourne’s father. A secret that lands with the equivalent narrative explosiveness of a damp firecracker.
Despite what Greengrass’ frantic direction might try to get you to believe, this latest wrinkle in the increasingly convoluted personal saga of Jason Bourne is not just an unengaging one, but also a fairly rote mystery. This movie may take place in the world of Central Intelligence, but there seems to be a lack of the latter as it takes Bourne a whole movie to puzzle out what it will probably take most audiences just one patchy edited flashback to do.
Whatever the wishy-washy reasons for Bourne’s resurfacing though, it puts him in the crosshairs of CIA Director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) and his ambitiously ravenous cyber ops team leader Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander). Despite finding themselves on the broader same side, their goals don’t always align though. Lee feels she can still put their ex-attack dog back on his leash, whereas Dewey wants his brutish Asset (Vincent Cassel) to take said dog out back and introduce it to the business end of a high powered rifle.
Dewey’s kneejerking violence is in accordance with protecting his latest scheme involving a Mark Zuckerberg-like tech billionaire Aaron Kalloor (Riz Ahmed) and his social media empire’s latest piece of technology, which the CIA wants a backdoor into. This is all in service of Greengrass’ behind the scenes claims that this franchise has moved on from its gritty cold war origins and is now being informed by the digital privacy conscious post-Snowden real world.
But in reality the script from Greengrass and co-writer Christopher Rouse merely pays lip service to this posturing. What’s even worse is that it’s completely superfluous to Bourne’s actual narrative throughline. The two plots coalesce purely in a geographical sense, as a Las Vegas conference attended by both Dewey and Kaloor gives Bourne an opportunity to get closer to his antagonist. Other than that, Kaloor’s story serves no purpose – and doesn’t even get the dignity of a properly repercussive resolution as it just fizzles out with a soundbite.
To be fair though, while Greengrass’ sketchy co-scripting leaves something to be desired, he certainly still knows how to stage some cinematic chaos. His signature pulse-poundingly kinetic style – and yes, that includes the return of the equilibrium-testing shaky cam, so pack in some Dramamine – is undeniably no longer as freshly gritty as it once was, but it can still be effective in keeping your rear-end scrambling for purchase on the edge of your seat. Besides for an absolutely brutal mano-a-mano slobberknocker between Bourne and the Asset, a brace of explosive car chases bookending the film’s action beats standout as highlights. The best of these – a car-flipping melee involving an armoured SWAT van in the streets of Vegas – seemingly almost a Fast & Furious namedrop in its gloriously muscular obliteration of vehicular physics at times.
And while Damon’s Bourne is now stoic to the point of merely being a grimace with some fists attached to it, Jones appears to be having some proper fun in full-blown bureaucratic villain mode. Vikander’s character left me with a muted sense of frustration at the end to the film, but that’s purely because she does her job very well in lending Heather Lee a profound ambiguity. You’re never quite sure just who’s side she’s on.
Also, very much like it’s done in previous franchise entries, John Powell and David Buckley’s music score also does MVP work here. In a movie stuffed with scenes of people just briskly walking and talking in corridors, or tapping away furiously at keyboards while front-lit from computer monitors, the enervating music helps to keep everything moving.
In fact, it would be disingenuous for me to say that Jason Bourne doesn’t have a fair amount of this entertaining kinetic motion. The problem is that more often than not it just finds itself going through the motions. The story is far too simplified in both scope and smarts (this is a movie where hacking the CIA’s black ops files, involves copying a folder labeled “Black Ops Files” off a computer desktop), and as exciting as some action beats may be, there’s nothing original or groundbreaking about any of them. This has all been done before and done better – and oftentimes by past entries in this very series.
Last Updated: July 28, 2016
Jason Bourne | |
As a low mental cost action movie diversion that should elevate blood pressure, it's certainly a more than watchable and entertaining affair. As the rebirth of the of the franchise that Damon and Greengrass were angling so hard for this to be, this unnecessary sequel is a bit still-bo(u)rne.
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RinceThis
July 28, 2016 at 12:32
I fell asleep halfway through…
Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0
July 28, 2016 at 12:34
No wonder you’re single…
RinceThis
July 28, 2016 at 12:35
Oi! At least I’m a cheap date!
Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0
July 28, 2016 at 12:38
http://www.loyolaphoenix.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Cheap-Date-logo.jpg
RinceThis
July 28, 2016 at 12:38
That’s called Friday night…
Alien Emperor Trevor
July 28, 2016 at 12:39
Yes, yes you are…
Pariah
July 28, 2016 at 12:40
Question: how do YOU know that?
Alien Emperor Trevor
July 28, 2016 at 12:41
Anyone who refreshes for the image will know 😀
Captain JJ off track
July 28, 2016 at 12:42
We don’t refresh for the likes of you!
RinceThis
July 28, 2016 at 12:42
What you said!
Alien Emperor Trevor
July 28, 2016 at 12:43
We’ll always have my apathy. Which is your problem.
Pariah
July 28, 2016 at 12:43
tl;dr
RinceThis
July 28, 2016 at 12:44
lol
RinceThis
July 28, 2016 at 12:40
You’d know! 0_0
Darren Peach
July 28, 2016 at 12:39
I feel asleep through The Avengers….
RinceThis
July 28, 2016 at 12:40
That’s called narcolepsy, different thing…
Pariah
July 28, 2016 at 12:42
*Symptom of
Narcolepsy doesn’t always result in cataplexy. Often, but not always.
RinceThis
July 28, 2016 at 12:42
Zzzzz, say what?
Pariah
July 28, 2016 at 12:43
Narcolepsy is in fact when a person doesn’t get any restful sleep. One of the symptoms is cataplexy, the sudden falling asleep thing that happens while they’re doing other things. Which is what you were trying to refer to.
RinceThis
July 28, 2016 at 12:44
Yeah, got that, I think the joke however was not got 😛
Pariah
July 28, 2016 at 12:45
I got that. But it fell flat due to the “zzz” being in front of, not after. The correct “joke” would be “say wha… zzzzz”
Alien Emperor Trevor
July 28, 2016 at 12:47
Are you sure that’s correct?
Pariah
July 28, 2016 at 12:48
I’m not refreshing.
RinceThis
July 28, 2016 at 12:48
HAHAHA Good call.
Darren Peach
July 29, 2016 at 15:46
I fell.
Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0
July 28, 2016 at 12:35
http://i.imgur.com/OA1kQnv.gif
Skoobaz
July 29, 2016 at 13:19
So wrong but kuk funny.
Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0
July 29, 2016 at 13:21
XD
RinceThis
July 28, 2016 at 12:45
It was boring. Apart from 2/3 chase scenes there was nothing new.
Captain JJ off track
July 28, 2016 at 12:48
I never watched Legacy. I though a good place to stop was just before that, was considering this one with Damon back, but now I feel like I’d rather keep my Bourne memories safe.
RinceThis
July 28, 2016 at 12:50
Look it isn’t a BAD movie, just a boring one. Literally the same shit that happened 3 movies ago takes place. Damon is intense as hell though.
Captain JJ off track
July 28, 2016 at 12:52
Hmmm. My movie-watching is WAY behind.
*heads to TheMovies to find something new to try*
RinceThis
July 28, 2016 at 12:53
dont go there, not worth it! Though we do have a rather awesome competition!
Captain JJ off track
July 28, 2016 at 12:53
You had me at “don’t”
RinceThis
July 28, 2016 at 12:54
hahaha We need to catch up with the crew bud. Been too long.
Captain JJ off track
July 28, 2016 at 13:23
Yea. Damn it has. I considered popping in at EGE on Sat, but I’m not so sure yet.
Pariah
July 28, 2016 at 12:55
That comp <3
RinceThis
July 28, 2016 at 12:55
Wigs, wigs for everyone!
Alien Emperor Trevor
July 28, 2016 at 13:05
Didn’t work so well for Ghostbusters.
Skoobaz
July 29, 2016 at 13:19
Ever play “The movies”?
Captain JJ off track
July 29, 2016 at 14:05
Oh yea. I remember that. Was quite a bit of fun
miaau
July 28, 2016 at 13:42
Loved the first 3 movies, really good stuff, nice stories, completed the story arc. Made sense.
Leave it there, thanks guys.