Jason Bourne
Starring: Matt Damon, Alicia Vikander, Julia Stiles, Tommy Lee Jones, Vincent Cassel
Directed By: Paul Greengrass
Written By: Paul Greengrass & Christopher Rouse
Reviewed by Brendan Dousi
[rating: 2/5]
Sequels are just a way of life now. Hollywood has decided that familiar branding is the tried and true way to sell a movie so unless that trend changes, and it probably won’t, we’re going to see a lot more sequels popping up. This said, I was actually a little excited when I heard the original Bourne team of Director Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon were coming together to make this. It even gave me hope when I heard Damon refused to move forward unless Greengrass was attached and Greengrass refused to shoot unless he had a finished script. This hinted at integrity, this was a good indicator that things might actually turn out for the better. All I wanted, and what I ask of any sequel, is that it either; a) Is a story that deserves to be a told, be it something that builds to the mythos or adds something new and interesting OR b) improves upon the film technically, ups the stakes and at the very least makes things more visually interesting. Unfortunately, 2016’s Jason Bourne fails to deliver in both respects.
It is nice to see Matt Damon as Jason Bourne on screen again, the characters is familiar and Damon is a fantastic physical performer, uttering no more than a few words throughout the film while still saying quite a lot. Julia Stiles rocks up to retain her role as Nicky Parsons and having the old team together is nice to see as the plot starts to thicken and our Protagonist is again embroiled in the shady world of espionage and government oversight. Not to mention it’s great to see some shaky-cam action that doesn’t make me feel sick. If anything, Greengrass has always been a master at that pseudo-documentary aesthetic that became a staple of the franchise. But, once the familiarity begins to wear off, we’re stuck with sequel requirement ‘a’ rearing its head. Is this a story that deserves to be told? Ultimately, it isn’t. The story they’re trying to tell here already felt resolved by the previous films. Jason uncovered his true identity, learnt the truth about his recruitment and told the CIA to bugger off. The decision to rehash this same story by adding a lazy and convenient twist just comes off as cheap. It all feels too familiar and adds nothing to the story that’s already been told. If anything, it would have been more interesting to see them take this character and build a new story with him instead of trying to milk the, ‘he’s gotta find out more about his past’ cow one more time.
Even if you ignore the rehashed plot, the film just fails to do anything interesting. The Bourne films have always been smarter, more grounded films where the excitement came from a man who had to think on his feet and improvise while on the run. The script just doesn’t feel up to par, which is interesting considering this is the first time Greengrass himself has actually written a Bourne film. There is literally a moment in a CIA control centre where they have a blurry image and someone is ordered to ‘enhance’ the image and it miraculously becomes the clearest image ever of Julia Stiles. Bourne has always felt better than that and it’s a shame to see it resort to such clichés. Which brings us to requirement ‘b’, does it at least improve upon the other films technically? Again, this film falls up short. It lacks the frantic imagination that made the other films such a pleasure to watch. The best thing about Bourne films, for me at least, were the fantastic improvised fight scenes. Watching Bourne utilise his surroundings when he was outmatched was always a joy, but here it just feels lacking. There’s nothing truly inventive, everything feels so run of the mill. Even the big penultimate car chase scene is severely lacking. It’s just a car chasing another car. Other cars get smashed. Then the chasing car catches up to the running car. Nothing unique. Nothing to set it apart from any other of the hundreds of car chases we’ve seen before in movies. All we’re left with is bland and pedestrian, just like the rest of the movie.
Jason Bourne isn’t an awful movie in any respects. It just isn’t a good Bourne film. This series has been so much better than this and has us expecting more. With almost ten years between the Damon-helmed films, I wanted this film franchise to return with a bang and blow us all away. Unfortunately it just sits there, limp and uninspired. A clear cash-in on brand recognition that had no interest in adding something substantial to the franchise, and what we’re left with is the franchise’s weakest instalment. Yep, I’m also counting Jeremy Renner’s The Bourne Legacy. Come on guys, you can do better than this.
