Jason Bourne

Jason Bourne makes a welcome return in the self titled Jason Bourne, although this movie is not in the same league as The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). The Bourne Legacy (2012) saw the movie go in another direction with Jeremy Renner in the lead instead of Matt Damon however this was met with disappointing results. Jason Bourne sees Matt Damon slip back into one of his famous roles albeit some time has since passed.

Following the events of The Bourne Ultimatum which saw Jason Bourne slipping away after successfully exposing Operation Blackbriar, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) lives off the grid and makes a living participating in illegal bare knuckle fighting rings. Bourne is still troubled by memories of his past as a CIA black ops operative. Meanwhile in Iceland, former CIA operative turned computer hacker Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) uncovers Bourne's recruitment into the Treadstone program and his father's role in the program while hacking into the CIA's mainframe systems to expose the CIA's black ops program. The intrusion is brought to the attention of the CIA's head of the Cyber Ops Division Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander), and CIA Director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) who also seemingly has a shady agenda. When Nicky travels to Greece to find and inform Bourne, they find themselves hunted by CIA operatives, including a ruthless assassin known as the Asset (Vincent Cassel). Jason Bourne must revisit his old life and uncover another conspiracy which he thought was well and truly behind him.

It was fantastic to see Paul Greengrass return to the director's chair to revisit the Bourne universe as well as Matt Damon making a welcome return as Jason Bourne, the role that added another string to his bow as an excellent actor. While I couldn't fault Matt Damon, it was like I was revisiting old ground with this movie. Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Julia Stiles, Riz Ahmed and Vincent Cassel round out the supporting cast just fine.

While there's plenty of action sequences which are a staple for the Bourne series, Jason Bourne seems to focus on the action and I felt that the spirit of the original trilogy was missed with the intelligent story lines which made all three of the original movies very memorable when first released and to this day all three movies have earned a spot in my list of favourite movies of all time. Jason Bourne seemed to be like a popcorn movie to appeal to the audiences to who like to suspend their disbelief and enjoy the non-stop action.

While I had a good time in the cinema watching Jason Bourne, I fear that another Jason Bourne movie may be one too many which could tarnish the fond memories of the original Bourne trilogy. Perhaps it may be time to leave Jason Bourne alone.

7/10.

Jason Bourne wants so hard to believe in its own supremacy, forces an ultimatum of thrills and spills, but ultimately lacks identity.

The original trilogy still stands out as one of the most intelligent post-Cold War spy action thrillers and it mostly succeeded in being the last word in the genre. Its huge success and relevance also gave the Bond franchise a big wake-up call. Amnesia-assassin Bourne is the real thang!

So 9 years later, Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon decided it is opportune time to inject a dose of Bourne-adrenaline and his extreme ways into us. The only problem is that instead of innovation and reinvention, it serves up last night's fried rice paradise. One shouldn't mess with paradise! Greengrass regurgitates out plot points from the three predecessors. From Operation Threadstone to Operation Blackbriar, we get yet another black-ops organisation called Ironhand that wants to stay hidden and will whack anyone to Kingdom Come to prevent its knowledge from getting out. It once again exploits Bourne's amnesia as he glimpses yet another piece of his jigsaw mind-puzzle. We get the same old CIA foggies uttering "Where's Bourne?" and everyone wearing pained expressions as Bourne evades everyone in Athens, Berlin, London and Las Vegas. We get yet again a woman who thinks she know best but Alicia Vikander has none of the gravitas of Joan Allen because she is too young to be convincing.

The screenplay does offer up an promising post-Snowden scenario but it still feels a little too familiar. These issues aside the movie is still a pulsating ride. The pace is relentless and Damon's taciturn Bourne still represents a driving force of reckoning. The spycraft and action set-pieces ooze uber-coolness and you will want to see it again just to catch how they did it. However I have one major complaint - I absolutely abhor the schizophrenic editing and jumpy hand-held shots. The camera never stays still for more than two seconds for you to marvel at the fight choreography and the vehicle mayhem-chases. In my book, hand-held shots coupled with split-second cuts are the cheapest type of cheat codes in action thrillers. With these type of cinematic trickery anybody can be a martial arts exponent and a world-class spy. No class.

This is a good dish of leftovers. It may harken you back to the days of the original trilogy but it never truly pushes the character to a new frontier re-examining his psychological state. In the end, a dish of leftovers will still serve its purpose, especially when you are famished.

This was a big letdown, I'd had been looking foreword to it for ages too but for the most part this was boring, the story line was... nothing... a same ole Bourne is trying to find out about his past, people in an office looking at computers trying to find him. Just flat, predictable and redundant.

Tommy Lee Jones, wow was he even present for filming? He was just going through the motions here and appeared to shoot most of his scenes from his living room as he's on his own, on the phone or seated at a desk, appearing grumpy (as per) and bored.

Even the synopsis is dull "The CIA's most dangerous former operative is drawn out of hiding to uncover more explosive truths about his past." Meh.

On the plus there are some decent fight scenes, car chases as expected, an exciting motorcycle chase and a great bad guy with Vincent Cassel but nothing stand out or special there, everyone is just going through the motions.

Maybe I should give this another try, did I miss something?

The original Bourne trilogy of Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum were brilliant displays in effective storytelling and great action. Jason Bourne, however, isn't quite as proficient in both of those areas. On the one hand, it's action-packed to the brim, and provides for a hugely entertaining watch, but on the other, it's a disappointment as far as bringing yet another intriguing and truly thrilling mystery to life is concerned.

Let's start on the bright side, however, with the action. Paul Greengrass does yet another sterling job at directing some hugely exciting action sequences (including a thrilling chase in Athens that harks back to Ultimatum's Tangier chase), and in tandem with yet another excellent performance by Matt Damon as Jason Bourne himself, the action is definitely the best part of this film.

Where the story lacks, Jason Bourne more often than not gives you some insane action to revel at. Sure, it's not the work of storytelling geniuses, but if you're the sort of person who can turn their brain off for two hours and watch wall-to-wall action and explosions, then this film will have you in dreamland. It's not a Michael Bay movie, and Greengrass' style lends a lot to making more vibrant action sequences, but there's no doubt that fans of big action will love this film.

On the whole, I did enjoy this film, and I was able to recognise its flaws and just watch it as a big blockbuster. However, I can't escape feeling disappointed at the film's total failure to tell as intriguing a story as the first three films in the series.

The enthralling mysteries and gradual revelations about Jason Bourne's past were what really separated this series from any other spy thriller. In this movie, however, everything felt a lot more generic, with a much bigger emphasis on action than clever storytelling and patient, gradual character and plot development. Unfortunately, it's that that makes Jason Bourne look pale in comparison to the original trilogy, and those who are expecting yet another engrossing and intelligent thriller will certainly be disappointed.

That said, there are bright moments in the story too. It's not a horrifically dull film, and there are a few details that relate right the way back to The Bourne Identity. What's more is that Matt Damon, Alicia Vikander and Tommy Lee Jones all put in very strong performances to add a degree of gravitas to what is in truth a very clichéd and repetitive story, which was good to see.

Overall, I am disappointed by Jason Bourne, in that it doesn't manage to tell such an enthralling and intelligent mystery as the series' original trilogy, but its top-quality action and strong directing and performances still allowed me to have a lot of fun for two hours.

You can really tell that they were grasping at straws in this one, the first Damon installment in the Bourne series for 9 years. The plot is thin at best, and added elements for surprise's sake feel silly when they come out of the blue, or predictable when they don't. That said, the acting all around is solid, except for maybe Alicia Vikander, whose character as a whole seemed like it was just tacked on to mirror Julia Stiles' from previous movies. They really do follow the Bourne formula here: one major hand to hand scene, one major chase scene, and, yes, shaky-cam. It wasn't as bad in Ultimatum (2007) as it was in the first two and not necessarily in this one either, but the dang lighting on sets was horrid and what made it worse was that literally every action scene took place at night. The major chase at the end, too, but at least it had some really cool moments in better lighting.