Film News

Jason Bourne Review

Published

10 years ago

July 27, 2016

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Bourne Again?

♦Tripwire’s editor-in-chief preps his secret earpiece and reviews the latest Bourne film, Jason Bourne, the first starring Matt Damon and directed by Paul Greengrass in nine years …

Jason Bourne

Director: Paul Greengrass;

Stars: Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel

Nine years is a very long time in Hollywood. Since the third Bourne film, The Bourne Ultimatum, Universal have attempted to resurrect the franchise with the rather dull Bourne Legacy, starring Jeremy Renner. But both Damon and Greengrass stated that they wouldn’t return to Bourne unless they had a strong script and an inventive story. Regardless of such honourable pledges, it’s 2016 and here we have Jason Bourne anyway, where David Webb aka the title character, is living his life seemingly outside of the CIA. But things are predictably not what they seem and our eponymous hero has co-opted Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles from the other three Bourne films) into acting as his partner to find out a little more about Treadstone, the operation that Webb was originally drawn into as a pawn. It turns out that his father Richard was directly responsible for him enrolling in the programme, and so another mystery beckons to be unravelled. Tommy Lee Jones plays the evil CIA head Robert Dewey, assisted by his protege, the icily cold and somewhat treacherous Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander). We are introduced here to tech billionaire Aaron Kalloor (Riz Ahmed), who has shady connections to the US secret service. The CIA are determined to get rid of Bourne and Kalloor, so enter Asset (Vincent Cassel), who plays their nameless assassin for hire. Lee Jones is suitably malignant as the CIA head and Cassel is exceptional as the archetypal hired killer, but the plot is a little threadbare and derivative of previous outings. We know who Bourne really is now, and while it is interesting to find out about his father’s role in his backstory, such a MacGuffin really doesn’t add anything to the canon. Jason Bourne is enhanced by the stylish direction of Greengrass and Matt Damon’s assuredly magnetic turn, but it doesn’t feel like it really adds up to much at the end of the day.

The previous Bourne films, especially the second and parts of the third, felt fresh and innovative, acting as an intriguing counterpoint to years of stale James Bond fare. Jason Bourne, even though it is diverting enough, feels like the filmmakers are going through the motions. It does make you wish that they had left it all alone, leaving the impressive legacy of three decent modern espionage spy films intact. Maybe in 2016, there’s no place for Jason Bourne anymore.

JOEL MEADOWS