Saturday, July 30, 2016

Jason Bourne


It’s been 10 years since we last saw Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, and the years have aged him, making Jason Bourne look convincingly like a guy who's been in hiding. Director by Paul Greengrass keeps the pace and chaos of Jason Bourne in line with past films in the franchise, a frenetic ride and urgent nature that's in keeping with what’s become some of the signature elements of the franchise.

What’s missing is the story. The overall concept and motivations worked, but in the final scenes, both the C.I.A. director and the ‘Asset’ do a series of things that don’t make much sense.   

In Jason Bourne the actors we’ve come to know are gone; Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons only appears briefly, and all the C.I.A. operatives we’ve come to know prior are gone. Tommy Lee Jones is the new C.I.A. director (Dewey) who is on the hunt to ‘put down’ Jason Bourne -- to hide his own dirty little secret. The director’s accomplice, known only as the  ‘Asset,” is an agent who spent 10 years in a foreign prison after getting burned by Bourne -- when the info for the Blackbriar program was leaked -- in the Bourne Supremacy. Of course he is hell-bent on revenge.

Alicia Vikander is C.I.A. Director Dewey’s protege in a role that she did with about all she could do; it
didn’t give her much work with.

If you’re a true Bourne fan, you might be disappointed with two aspects of this film: unlike Pamela Landy, who slowly came to realize that Bourne was not the threat assumed, in this new version people are too quick to come to his aid. And near the end both director Dewey and the Asset do really dumb things. Whether it was to create the scenes or just bad storytelling,  it left me let down.

Jason Bourne however is still a great action ride for the mind and emotions. So climb on board.

3 stars

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