- Title: Jason Bourne
- IMDb: link
Largely ignoring the events of The Bourne Legacy, Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass return to the Bourne franchise. In the years since The Bourne Ultimatum Jason Bourne has become a wandering nomad and underground street fighter. With his memories restored he lacks the purpose which drove him in the first three films of the series.
The return of Nicky (Julia Stiles) and her quest to expose the government’s new black ops programs will shock Bourne out of his malaise when she provides him additional information about Treadstone and his recruitment into the program asking questions he desperately needs answers to.
Resurfacing after years, Bourne immediately becomes the focus of a manhunt by CIA Director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) and his new hot-shot protege Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander) who begins to wonder if the CIA wouldn’t be better off attempting to bring Bourne in rather than assassinate him. Vikander’s addition, similar to a younger version of Joan Allen‘s character from the third and fourth films (with a questionable accent), allows for some conflict within the CIA as to Bourne while setting up potential ally for our protagonist within the agency.
Jason Bourne isn’t the best of the franchise, and it offers more of the series’ quick-cut shaky-cam action scenes than I’m comfortable with. That said, it is an improvement over both the Renner film and Ultimatum. The script does force you to buy a couple of big coincidences concerning Bourne and the program and Bourne’s connection to Dewey’s latest asset (Vincent Cassel). Still, with a focus on action and suspense, the film does give you its money’s worth.
Matt Damon is as ripped as I’ve ever seen him on-screen. Despite remembering his past in the last movie there are plenty of holes to fill including why he was recruited into Treadstone. The script teases a reason strong enough to force Bourne out of hiding and continue his search until he has the full truth. How easily the plot thread ties together Bourne, Dewey, and Dewey’s asset is a little too neat (it’s only missing a bow), but the script does provide incentive for every member of the cast to work for or against Jason Bourne’s search for the truth. The movie doesn’t conclude Jason Bourne’s story, but it does offer a different avenue for future adventures should Damon and Greengrass choose to remain with the franchise. I’ll admit that I’m curious to see where they might go from here.
