Jason Bourne is haunted by flashbacks! There are shady CIA plans! There are crazy chases through chaotic streets! Look out, there are shaky hand to hand fights! Bourne outsmarts everyone with his ingenuity with tech! It’s all here in Jason Bourne, the return of Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass to the Bourne franchise. While the film is solid, it falls short when newly introduced wrinkles and themes are never fully explored.
There is one thing that will not escape anyone’s notice: Everyone looks tired and weary. Damon’s Bourne seems as tired as everyone, but don’t let that fool you. He is as solid as ever as the super spy. Damon’s Bourne is an older, not so wise man. No longer haunted by the loss of loved ones, now Bourne is haunted by the remaining holes in his memory. This Bourne seems to lack purpose until hints to his past are revealed. It’s a subtle but intriguing change in motivation.
Tommy Lee Jones’ CIA Director Dewey makes for an interesting antagonist, but not just because he looks as old and weary as Bourne (No offense meant). While Jones is not as good as previous CIA baddies Chris Cooper or Brian Cox, he is actually the first to be somewhat charming. He actually made me chuckle a couple of times.
Vincent Cassel’s “Asset” is both interesting and frustrating. While the film tries to make him more than a simple henchman, it doesn’t develop him nearly as well as they should. There is a twist that makes him intriguing, but it’s never really developed and simply turns into a rehash of previous Bourne revenge motivations.
Julia Stiles returns, but barely registers. The connection between Stiles’ Nicky and Bourne felt forced in The Bourne Ultimatum so my disconnection with her character here may be a reflection of that.
On the other hand, Alicia Vikander is pretty solid as Heather Lee, a young CIA analyst. At first, her character appears to be another Nicky Parsons but happily she isn’t wasted in that way. Her character takes some interesting turns that feel right. I wish there was more with her character.
Like the previous Bourne films, Jason Bourne‘s is interspersed by a deliberately told plot. However, this is the first time it drags. There’s a Mark Zuckerberg like web entrepreneur played by Riz Ahmed involving government surveillance and privacy in the social media age. It’s all intriguing stuff, but interest wanes as the film goes on.
This is mostly due to the lack of interesting action set pieces. There is a fun car chase in Las Vegas, but overall there’s nothing we haven’t seen before. And the shaky-cam fight scenes return and feel a little dated now as many action films have started to go away from that. All of Bourne’s fast fight moves would be cool to look at…if only the camera would stand still for just a few seconds.
With all the new plot points, it feels like Greengrass is trying to tell a deeper story. But then he remembers that this is an action flick and short changes some all of that.
I feel like the difference between generations of CIA operations (Bourne and Dewey come from one, Lee is the latest) should have been played up more. The rivalry between Cassel’s Asset and Bourne should have been the backbone of the film. In fact, maybe the Asset should have been the primary antagonist. Contrasting the two would have been awesome: Bourne, the brainwashed former agent trying to make the right choices versus The Asset, a man who believes absolutely that all he has done is justified without brainwashing.
There are hints to an intriguing film in Jason Bourne, but instead there are only wasted opportunities.
Score: 6 out of 10