Jason
Bourne
Jason
Bourne: "The next bullet's in your
head!"
Jason
Bourne is directed by Paul Greengrass (The
Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne
Ultimatum, Captain Phillips) and
stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, Tommy Lee Jones as CIA Director Robert Dewey,
Alicia Vikander as Heather Lee, Vincent Cassel as Asset, Riz Ahmed as Aaron
Kalloor, Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons, Ato Essandoh as Craig Jeffers, Scott
Shepherd as Director NI Edwin Russell, and Bill Camp as Malcolm Smith.
Jason Bourne is back to discover more secrets
about his past, but this time, after years of hiding from the world, he is
found by former friend Nicky Parsons to tell him about a new program that the
CIA is forming to make more deadly human weapons by spying on innocent
citizens. This leads CIA Director Robert Dewey to find him too and he assigns
Heather Lee, a hacker and employee of the CIA, and a new asset to track Bourne
and put him down. Bourne, evading all of the dangerous situations using his
expert hand to hand combat skills, finds himself going up against an event that
has the CIA working with a company called Deep Dream to monitor all human
beings, thus providing the government with an eye in peoples' everyday lives;
an epidemic invasion of privacy that is against the law and human ethics.
The
Bourne films with Matt Damon have always been a standard of what spy/action
films try to do. They are exciting, violent, intriguing in plot, and damn fun.
This newest installment, unfortunately, comes in fourth place out of the four
Matt Damon films. This isn't to say I didn't have fun and Damon didn't kick
ass. He did and it was freaking fantastic when the action sequences were shown.
However, the plot is nothing to be praised. I found it boring for the most
part, actually. In the previous films, it was fun to watch Jason dig deeper and
deeper into his past to uncover the shocking things that the CIA did to him.
There are elements of this in Jason
Bourne, but the focus isn't at all on Jason solving those mysteries, it's
about stopping this new company from spreading a technology worldwide that
watches what people do in private. The script does tend to keep repeating that
Jason is a patriot at heart, but this is the first film in which Jason does
something for the entirety of the human race and not just for him. Call me
selfish or whatever, but I enjoyed it more when Jason looked for his past,
first and foremost. I feel like it gives Jason more of an oomph on his personal
agenda. Like I said, this is present in Jason
Bourne, but it isn't the priority.
It's almost if the filmmakers wanted to try something completely different,
which I totally admire, but it just isn't pulled off very well in the end.
So action...yeah, there's a bunch of cool
hand to hand combat in Jason Bourne
just like the other Bourne films have.
Again, it's awesome as hell. Even the vehicle chases are amazing. I applaud
Paul Greengrass for the shots that he got. These definitely must've not been
easy especially with one particular scene involving a SWAT truck rolling over a
bunch of other cars. I can see why Matt Damon wouldn't return for another Bourne film unless Greengrass was again
director. This guy is a mad genius! I do have to warn people though: there is a
lot of shaky cam. This is a staple of the Bourne
films, though. If you don't enjoy the realistic gritty action scenes in the
previous films, then Jason Bourne's
action scenes most likely won't win you over. For those of you who do happen to
like the intensity of these action scenes, the technicality to get this sense
of realism makes me and will make you happy that this style is still alive and
well. The one problem I have with the Bourne
action scenes isn't the grittiness of it all. It's actually the editing.
Sometimes I can't even tell what's going on besides punching and kicking, but
to help keep the audience in check, the sound editing is extraordinarily well
done. A punch in the throat sounds much more different than a punch on the gut
(weird thing to say) and it seriously is easy to tell in Jason Bourne.
We would all assume that Matt Damon is
the star of Jason Bourne since he
plays the title character. However, if someone asked me who that stand out
character is, I would probably say that Alicia Vikander as Heather Lee is
actually the stand out. Since her amazing performance in Ex Machina and The Danish
Girl, she's been wanted by everybody. I think it may be because she just
screams out everyday Joe. She isn't over the top, nor does she take you out of
the movie she is acting in. She's very good at transitioning her acting and
that shows here. Heather Lee's motives, though, are a little vague, but I would
say that's due to the screenplay which, again, is the fault for most of the
negatives in Jason Bourne. The
performances all over the board were well done, but I would just mention that Alicia
Vikander is just the person I would give highest praise to. Of course, Matt
Damon is just as badass and just as fierce as he is in the other Bourne films. It's always entertaining
to see how much Matt Damon is committed to his role as an international
spy/assassin/soldier/killer/Chuck Norris. I'm glad he didn't disappoint because
I know if he put in the same amount of effort the story regarding Deep Dream
did, then I would've hated Jason Bourne.
Jason Bourne, rather than focusing on Jason's past and motives, falls
short of good. This certainly has the potential to be another add-on to an
already great franchise, except that Jason
Bourne just doesn't feel as connectable as the other Bourne films because this one's primary objective is to take down a
company that wants to invade the privacy of people. Jason does have his revenge
motives in Jason Bourne, that's for
sure, but I just don't really care when the Deep Dream plot is being shoved
down my throat. I will give it this, the action is, once again, cool as hell
and every fight scene that has Jason punching a guy sounds like you're getting
hit without feeling actual pain. Paul Greengrass does his job with directing
very well, but the screenwriting part seems to be the fluke. I'm sorry, man.
You have got to keep Jason fighting his way to the truth in the forefront. I'm
down for another Bourne film, though,
and I think that the filmmakers will learn their mistake and hopefully make
another action/thriller classic with Jason Bourne brutally hurting people to
get answers.
- Action scenes are still as badass as ever
- Alicia Vikander and Matt Damon's performances
- Realistic and gritty view with handheld camera movement (while very, very subjective)
- Deep Dream plot
Jason Bourne is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and
action, and brief strong language.
Click here to watch the trailer
Jason Bourne is in theaters everywhere now
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