MOVIE REVIEW: Jason Bourne

Jason Bourne (2016)

Action, Thriller

Directed By: Paul Greengrass

I don't think I will ever forget the first time I saw The Bourne Identity, the flick that kick started this franchise, and for good reason; it's one of the best action films of the modern century. I missed the movie in theaters but my dad rented the DVD as soon as it came out and we had ourselves a little late night movie viewing. We used to have a pull-out couch in the family room, so we pulled the bed out, made ourselves comfortable and shoved popcorn in our faces for two hours as we reveled in the breathtaking action that ensued - I was mesmerized. It is one of my most fond movie watching experiences with my dad and it will stick with me forever. I don't think I have watched the film in its entirety in a few years but I could still go over the whole movie almost scene for scene with anyone at anytime, it's that good. 

I am telling you all of this because I want you to know what a deep connection I have with this franchise and that I went into this movie wanting to love every second of it. Identity was followed by two good sequels, Supremacy & Ultimatum, they aren't great but they are damn good and when that trilogy ended I thought we had a kickass American action franchise that would stand the test of time. Then they made a spin-off flick with Jeremy Renner, I never saw it because I was never interested. When that movie failed the studio did everything they could to get Paul Greengrass back in the director's chair and Matt Damon back in front of the camera. They got what they wanted and now we have the fifth movie in the series, simply titled Jason Bourne.

This information is all relevant because, despite my desires for this to be one of my favorites of the year, I left the theater feeling wholly underwhelmed and tragically bored. Feeling like the shell of its much better predecessors, Jason Bourne (or Bourne *Light* as I've been calling it) once again follows our mystery assassin as the CIA try to bring him in and corrupt him once again, only this time they decided to be hip to modern trends and add a whole cyber security/Silicon Valley angle that never succeeds at getting its footing in the story. You couldn't have shoehorned in more Edward Snowden name drops if you were making the Snowden movie, it's that on the nose. Not to mention the big "tech expo" they check out in the movie feels like a scene pulled from Silicon Valley, which directly parodies and satirizes the tech world. In a film as serious as this the sequence feels totally out of place and misunderstood by the filmmakers.

Whenever I leave a movie not having enjoyed it I tend to sit back and try to find the points of the movie I truly enjoyed, as to find the few silver linings to spending the cash on a ticket. With this one I fear there are none of those moments, sadly. The trailers spoiled all of the best action shots from Bournes opening one-punch knock out to the car chase on the Vegas strip and outside of those there isn't much else to offer for two hours. That's criminal, in an action franchise known for its inventive and flashy action sequences to have a two hour film filled with dull and unoriginal fights and chase scenes is simply unacceptable. 

Matt Damon does a fine enough job reprising his role, but when your character only spits a handful of lines the entire time and is mostly expected to do good action that's not the hardest task to pull off. The big hope was that newcomers Alicia Vikander and Tommy Lee Jones would use their talents to lift the film, but due to poorly written characters and dialogue they end up just being another part of the problem with the movie as a whole. They also bring back Julia Stiles character Nicky Parsons, and succeed at wasting her entirely. It never felt like they had a full grasp on what they wanted to do with each character, having each of their storylines feeling connected by the weakest of threads. 

Okay, so the characters aren't the best and the action isn't what we'd hoped, but there is still the mystery of it all, right? The biggest draw to the first three Bourne movies is the unknown nature of his character, following him as he finds out who he is has always been the most intriguing aspect of the franchise. After three movies there isn't much mystery left though and what they do try and do this time around fails to have any real impact on the viewer. It feels like they forced in a story about Bourne's father and another government killer just so we had an actual plot line for his character. None of it ever lands or grabs the emotional response that it needs to and feels like it's because they were holding back in hopes of making at least one more story, I hate that.

When it all comes down to it the big draw to this new movie was the return of Damon as Jason Bourne as well as Paul Greengrass to the director's chair. The latter is something that always puzzled me a bit, yeah his two movies (Supremacy/Ultimatum) prior to this continued the franchise in a nice way but it was that first movie that really made this franchise a big success, and is still the best of them all. Well, that first movie was directed by Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow) and this newest film shows that he should have been the guy they went after to get this series going again. There are already talks of another movie, but after this I am checked out of the Bourne saga. I'll live on happily thinking of only the first three films as a perfect as can be action franchise.  

As always, thanks for reading and I am Zach Who Watches Movies. You can find me anytime on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later!