Editor’s Notes: Jason Bourne is currently out in wide theatrical release.
From 2002 to 2007, the Bourne trilogy (loosely based upon the bestselling spy series by Robert Ludlum) revolutionised action cinema with its pulse-pounding blend of brutal, realistic espionage and gripping realpolitik, forming the model for countless imitators to come. When Universal’s vain attempt to revitalise the franchise sans star-director duo Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass, The Bourne Legacy, underperformed both critically and commercially, this once-relevant brand seemed all but forgotten. Now, 14 years after his first amnesiac-inspired mission, Jason Bourne returns in the aptly named…Jason Bourne. If nothing else, that remarkably milquetoast title proves symbolic of this limp, unimaginative and wholly unnecessary sequel. One can only presume The Bourne Inadequacy was already taken.
One can only presume The Bourne Inadequacy was already taken.
Bourne, understandably satisfied with the answers provided in 07’s Ultimatum, has crafted a peaceful (of a sort) existence as a low-level fighter on the Greek border, surviving off the grid lest his former employers take another stab at finding their most treasured creation. However, Bourne is brought out of the shadows by fellow CIA defector Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles, deadpanning through a thankless role) and her ideological resistance to worldwide surveillance. Her latest hack has revealed another wrinkle in the Bourne Backstory; one which sets Jason on a bruising path of vengeance to the very top of the governmental food chain.
Hot on his heels are grizzled higher-up Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones, whose stony demeanour reaches new heights in this woefully unengaged turn) and his naïve protégé Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander, somehow feeling more robotic than her android role in sci-fi Ex Machina). Bourne himself remains a complete non-entity, Damon able to convey little other than stoicism and passivity; not the most gratifying traits for your leading man. The film appears to take place on another planet where basic human emotion and inflection of speech are strictly, rigorously forbidden. The sole player to deliver even a semblance of humanity is Vincent Cassell as The Asset, a mysterious figure from Bourne’s past with a serious vendetta against our bedraggled hero.
Greengrass reverts back to his typical handheld style, a technique once extraordinary now rendered hollow by over a decade of exposure.
Greengrass reverts back to his typical handheld style, a technique once extraordinary now rendered hollow by over a decade of exposure. At times, this viscerally punishing technique goes overboard to the point of incomprehensibility. In search of vitality and grit, Greengrass sacrifices tenets of action filmmaking like coherent geography, distinguishable characters and the health of certain migraine-prone audiences. Even a mere dialogue exchange can run half its length out of focus!
The customary action scenes take a considerable period to take flight, only to prove wholly inconsequential upon their arrival. A climactic car chase amid the neon-infused backdrops of inner city Vegas quickens the pulse, topped only by the proceeding fistfight between Bourne and The Asset. Overall, though, it seems Greengrass and Damon have been out of the spy game too long to match their former glories.
The motivation behind this unbelievably dull and bizarrely uneven blockbuster is not only hazy at best, but serves to undermine Bourne’s arc in the previous three films. By essentially retconning past revelations, Greengrass and co-writer/editor Christopher Rouse do a serious disservice to their former, far superior work. Couple that with an odd, weirdly misguided subplot about corporate collusion, and you get one of the preachiest summer spectacles in recent memory. Greengrass spends so long atop his soapbox that he forgets to deliver a satisfying blockbuster, let alone a worthy Bourne movie.
Emotionally stilted, dramatically inert and entirely ill-conceived, Jason Bourne is a mission not worth remembering.
Emotionally stilted, dramatically inert and entirely ill-conceived, Jason Bourne is a mission not worth remembering.
