Jason Bourne is the newest film in the Bourne franchise, thus bringing back Matt Damon to play our beloved titular character. But is Damon’s return to the action packed franchise too little too late?
Jason Bourne is back to beat up bad guys and to search for answers. As he slips in and out of foreign lands, Bourne has taken up a rather violent pastime of beating up people and competing for money. But Bourne is soon driven back out of hiding, as Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) believes she has new information that he may want. With a new line up of evildoers, Bourne must take down those at the CIA in order to find out the truth about newly discovered information.
There isn’t anything new to this film, with the exception of a few characters. But as this film tingles your senses for action and mayhem, the story is stale and overplayed. First and foremost, let’s get to the action. This film is crazy. The first big action sequence is a motorcycle chase that takes place during a riot. Guns are firing, and fires envelope the surrounding streets, as Bourne weaves in and out of the chaos. The action is in this film is what is truly exceptional. But as the film progresses the story was nothing more than what we’ve seen in previous Bourne films.
Once again, though Bourne’s memory is almost fully recovered, he finds out information about an event that was personal to him, and begins to get revenge on the people that caused this event to happen. I know I’m being vague in these details, but I would rather not spoil anything for you. Nevertheless, the CIA seems to be behind it all. At this point in the Bourne franchise, I would have liked to see something different. But even the stale story is not what truly bothers me about this film. The plot of social media and the fear of privacy plays heavy in this film. And for what, I don’t know. This storyline feels forced as the script almost needs a connection to current events. At one point the character of Aaron Kalloor, who is behind this social media project, utters the line, “this could be worse than Snowden.” The script does its share of involving certain current events in the film, but in the end, it doesn’t make much of a difference to the overall intensity of the film.
I will say that the actors in Jason Bourne did a fantastic job. Tommy Lee Jones, who plays CIA Director Robert Dewey, went above and beyond in this film. I haven’t seen Jones this good in years. But it was probably Alicia Vikander’s, Heather Lee character, that really added a lot of substance to the overall situations. Along with these fine actors, both Julia Stiles and Vincent Cassel added to the story. It might be just because I’m a 90s kid, but I hope to see Stiles in more films. I think she does an exceptional job with her acting, when given the right material.
I didn’t have any preconceived notion as to how Jason Bourne was going to be. In fact, I stayed away from the naysayers, because the only way to find out if you don’t like a film, is to go see it for yourself. And because I love the other Bourne movies (expect Bourne Legacy) I thought, how bad can it be if I love the other films. Well, Jason Bourne is definitely my least liked Bourne movie from the Damon era. I can’t say that it’s a bad film, but rather, this film franchise is stalling at the moment. Although Jason Bourne is a disappointment, it’s nowhere near as bad as the other movies that have been coming out this summer. So by that standard, Jason Bourne really isn’t so bad.
Jason Bourne
Directed by: Paul Greengrass
Starring: Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, and Julia Stiles
Rating:
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