Jason Bourne - Review Thread

Damn, see I liked Bourne Legacy more than most. It was ruined by that stupid 'chems' plot device so I'll give it to Jason Bourne. It's still far, far short of the original trilogy however.

Saw this yesterday, and I gotta say, not that great. When they announced a couple of years ago that Damon and Greengrass were finally coming back to do a new one, I had pretty high hopes. I figured that they came up with a pretty good idea that would be worthy of picking up from Ultimatum. For such a long time, the both of them said that in order for there to be a return, not only would it have to be a package deal, but they would have to have a good story in place. So I took them at their word.

However, as it's already been mentioned, when the title of the movie came out and the first teaser came out, I just wasn't feeling it. Something felt off.

It's pretty much recycled stuff we have seen from the other movies, especially Supremacy and Ultimatum. I mean, my God, how many times do we have to see one of those CIA war room scenes where somebody shouts out "Oh my God, that's Jason Bourne!" This is the 4th movie with Damon, and literally that scenes happened 1 or 2 times in every other movie. While some of the action was well choreographed, it never grabs you like it did in the other films. And those fight scenes also helped drive the plot of the movie. Not so much in this one. Because of that, the whole shake cam and quick cuts felt more bothersome than anything else. And this is coming from someone who generally likes that kind of approach for these type of fights. It tries too hard to make itself a relevant movie with all the Snowden references and the idea of privacy in such a technological age, but none of this is really new in the Bourne world. And there were too many scenes or lines of dialogue that were pretty much cut and pasted from the other movies.

And while I never would consider the Bourne movies to be art house cinema, the other ones were much more subtle in regards to how Bourne feels. Between all the close up shots of documents that explicitly tell the audience and the lazy dialogue, the movie lets you know as much as possible how damaged Bourne is. The movie was just a 2 hour reminder of what happened in the previous movies, what with all the flashbacks and such. That's always a great way to treat your fan base.

Now granted, there are plenty of convenient moments in all of these movies where Bourne somehow escapes, or how he just manages to meet the right character at the right moment, or whatever it may be. But at least in those, they felt acceptable because of the how well the story was being told. The character interactions felt believable too because they spent time developing those relationships. Everything felt plausible, and the actors did a good job of selling it too.

Damon is pretty much flat in the entire movie, as is most of the cast. I never bought that relationship between Damon and Alicia Vikander, mostly because there was no real attempt at developing one.

All in all, this is just a very long winded way of saying I didn't really like this movie, and that I'm pretty disappointed by it. Pretty uninspired filmmaking if you ask me. I hope Damon and Greengrass have learned their lesson and let this story end. I'll make a deal with them and pretend this never happened and just say Ultimatum is the last one.

Why does everybody seem to be so down on this movie?  I ended up enjoying it a hell of a lot; in fact, I think I kind of loved it.  Maybe it's partly due to the fact that this summer season has felt so lackluster for the mos part, but Jason Bourne is hands down one of the most satisfying movies of the summer for me.

Does it recycle certain tropes from the previous films?  Sure, but the point isn't that, but rather that said tropes are recycled with some very strong and confident execution.  Yes, we get CIA agents standing in control hubs staring at security feeds and saying, "My God, that's Jason Bourne!" again as well as scenes of Bourne beating the crap out of CIA Henchmen Numbers 1 through 5, at least, but Paul Greengrass knows how to execute it all.  There are some formulas that have proven durable, and the Bourne formula seems to be one of them.  But what did I think of the story, you ask?  I really liked it.  It got me involved, had me engaged pretty much from beginning to end and I thought it was pretty relevant to a lot of the stuff going on today.  People have complained that they didn't see a reason for the story to be told, but I did.  Matt Damon slips easily back into the role, like the second skin it's become for him by now.  Vincent Cassell and Tommy Lee Jones make for good villains, and while there's not much to Alicia Vikander's role, she still makes the most of it.

As for the action...again, some of the most exciting and satisfying I've seen all summer.  Greengrass continues to prove how skilled he is at staging intense and exciting set-pieces.  He kicks things off with a gripping motorcycle chase in Greece and caps it off with a truly kickass car chase in Las Vegas.  And no, I still don't mind the shaky cam, because I find Greengrass to be a director who knows how to use it.

I'd definitely say Jason Bourne is one of the best movies of the summer.  I thought it was better than The Bourne Legacy and The Bourne Identity, but not as good as Ultimatum.  But that still means it's pretty damn good.

Right now, I'm sitting at a ***1/2 /****

After almost ten years, I think it’s safe to say the original Bourne films are modern action movie classics. These were serious, smart movies made with the utmost conviction that actually made some effort to explore issues of government and surveillance while also exploring its characters with some degree of poignancy. This became especially true when director Paul Greengrass took over the franchise starting with The Bourne Supremacy and in the process added a very specific style of shaky cam (used way more effectively than most other filmmakers) and some aggressive editing. To cap things off, anyone looking for basic action thrills left the trilogy more than satisfied. The action scenes throughout have been really strong and seemed to hit a level of transcendent awesomeness with The Bourne Ultimatum. Since that film, it’s been radio silence from Jason Bourne. 2012 did see the spin-off effort, The Bourne Legacy, starring Jeremy Renner as a similar spy, and while that film wasn’t exactly terrible, it is by no means memorable and is pretty easy to disregard. Four years later and we finally have a proper continuation of the series, with Matt Damon returning as the now iconic Jason Bourne and Paul Greengrass back in the director’s chair.

It has been ten years since former government agent Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) exposed the CIA’s Operation Blackbriar program and subsequently disappeared. As the film opens, former Bourne ally Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) hacks private CIA fails in order to expose corruption and illegal black ops programs. In the process, Nicky uncovers new information about Bourne’s past and recruitment. She seeks out Bourne in Greece and puts him on a quest for answers. However the pair’s actions make them an enemy to the CIA and its current head; Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones). Seeking the two eliminated and the data stolen to be recovered, Dewey enlists a former Blackbriar assassin known as The Asset (Vincent Cassel) and the ambitious head of CIA cyber-ops Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander) to aid him. As Bourne alludes attacks and fights his way to the truth, he also finds himself involved in another of Dewey’s ventures; an effort to spy thoroughly on civilians through a social media website called “Deep Dream”.

Plot wise, this is largely “business as usual” for the Bourne series. Once again, Jason Bourne is drawn out to discover secrets of his past while sinister CIA agents conspire against him and once again the conflict plays itself out in a sort of cat and mouse way where the roles of hunted and hunter repeatedly switch. Anyone who was hoping for a new, bolder plotline after an almost ten year absence will likely be disappointed, but I do think there are some details to the plotting which work here rather well. The hook into Bourne’s past proves to still be engaging and while the eventual reveals do lean dangerously close to clichés, they are rewarding and play into the series’ cynical view and themes well. The subplot involving internet surveillance, though not integrated perfectly with Bourne’s own story, is also a nice touch and feels fairly authentic, particularly in the way it depicts governments bullying websites and owners for more information.

Finally, Jason Bourne also makes some efforts to explore new aspects of the man’s character, specifically suggesting that deep down Bourne is the violent assassin he tried to walk away from Greengrass. It’s not a coincidence that the film opens with Bourne engaged in highly violent fistfights for no real reason and the film’s characters even tell Bourne that he won’t find peace until he accepts who he really is. That isn’t the most subtle handling of theme, nor is it all that an original idea, but what’s interesting is that Greengrass seems to agree with that thesis. There is no forced redemption storyline or hypocritical moment of anti-violence moralization after two hours of violent action scenes. Bourne is depicted to be a violent and largely drained person and Damon’s performance plays up these aspects well. That’s not to say Bourne over becomes an outright villain, but he’s also a little more unsavoury than most of our blockbuster heroes seem to be these days.

Stylistically, Paul Greengrass and company seem to be picking up right where they left off with The Bourne Ultimatum. The documentary-esque video aesthetic remains intact and works well, while Christopher Rouse (who also co-wrote the screenplay) urgency and frinetic pace. Greengrass has also continued to cast world class actors in major roles. Vincent Cassel and Alicia Vikander work really here, but the real treat is Tommy Lee Jones who is just the perfect guy to play a Bourne villain. He’s certainly a threatening presence, but he also brings the right sense of gravitas and respect to the part. Though the style and cast have always been strong in these movies, the real treat has always been the action sequences and in that sense Jason Bourne delivers in a big way. The movie opens and closes on two amazing car chases, the first set amidst riots in Greece which evolves from a tense cat and mouse game to a full on motorcycle chase with a sniper in tow, and the final an absolutely brutal chase involving a car and a S.W.A.T. truck through the Vegas strip complete with some inspired vehicular destruction. There’s also a really down and dirty fistfight between Bourne and the Asset and a couple other strong action bits sprinkled throughout. In a purely visceral level, this is a really thrilling movie and its best action scenes are among the year’s best thus far.

Jason Bourne is a movie that does a lot right, but I also do get why a lot of critics are down on it. There is a decided feeling of “been there, done that” which permeates throughout the film in almost every aspect. The story feels like a retread, the exploration of Bourne’s character was more thorough in the previous trilogy, Greengrass’ style isn’t as fresh as it used to be, and the action scenes, though largely excellent, don’t manage to top the action from The Bourne Ultimatum. Even the notion of using an action movie as a coded attack on modern surveillance states is a little old. Last year’s James Bond adventure Spectre also featured a villain attempting to use online surveillance and both of these films were beat to the punch by Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Jason Bourne might be the most accurate of the three films, but it lacks a timely punch. And yet, in spite of all of this, I still really enjoyed Jason Bourne. Part of it might just be that I miss the series, and another part because in an era of snarky, self-referential, joke fueled superhero cinema, a no-nonsense action film unambiguously made for adults is highly appealing. However I think the real reason is simply that Jason Bourne is an intelligently made movie and it features a handful of really great set-pieces. Say what you will about Greengrass’ style no longer feeling new, the man is still an excellent filmmaker and he executes here with style, skill, and conviction.

B+

Jason Bourne is a Jason Bourne movie alright. Its got everything you would expect from a Bourne film; a juggernaut of frenetic pace and action, a minimal spy plot, and a stoic yet effecting performance from Matt Damon. It takes us to locations like Athens, Berlin, London and Vegas this time around. I particularly enjoyed seeing Vegas as I was just there recently and could recognize all the landmarks (though I think they got their geography wrong at the end of the chase. It seemed like they would have been at the Flamingo, not the Riviera...)

The story kicks off after Nikki hacks into the Blackbriar/Treadstone/whatever-it-is-now files and brings them to Bourne. Because his history is in the files, that makes this a little more of a personal venture than usual. On top of that, we get a revenge subplot to the film involving one of the other former assassins. I'm not sure this vengeance side to the story really fits too well, especially when it ends up going both ways. Somehow it seems beneath the Bourne franchise. I suppose that's why this film doesn't quite live up to the first three.

If you want a Bourne movie experience, Jason Bourne will give it to you. Its not as good as the others perhaps, but its still solid. I usually have issues with car chase, but the Vegas strip one was enjoyable. I also have issues with gratuitous killing of innocent bystanders in movies, and this one has a lot of that unfortunately. But regardless I still at fun with this latest Bourne flick.
8/10

Don't get me wrong, I don't consider this movie on par with the others and I'm not going to go to the wall for it. But why do we always have to expect them to bring something new to the table? Actually, I sort fo thought that they did try by attempting to make it ore personal with Bourne's backstory and connection to Cassel, and I thought that that was the main part that failed.