Movie Review: Jason Bourne
Rating: 3 Stars
It has been nearly two months since I’ve last watched a full length feature film in its entirety. Please forgive me if I’m rusty.
I thought there’d be no better way to get back in my groove than by not heeding my friend’s suggestions to watch Oscar films like La La Land or Moonlight and dive right back into Jason Bourne, my second favorite movie franchise about a super spy.
So immediately I almost feel bad because I just reviewed Split and gave it 2 and 1/2 stars. I can perfectly concede that Split is a better film than Jason Bourne. So why would I rate the 4th installment of the Bourne series (sorry Renner) at a solid 3 stars?
You can have a great film, great writing, great acting, great cinematography, and the rest of the technical jargon, but if the movie doesn’t leave you with a gratifying feeling, was the movie really great?
It’s a great argument to have, performance versus results? The result of a film is the feeling you leave with at the end, which typically boils down to did you enjoy the film?
The Bourne films follow its famed formulaic approach and Jason Bourne is no different. Also, why this movie is simply just named Jason Bourne is beyond me. There’s plenty more nouns in the dictionary that could’ve fit here. I might throw a couple suggestions out later.
Before delving into Bourne 4, which is what I’m calling this film to avoid confusion, it’s been 14 years since the first Bourne, The Bourne Identity.
9 years since the Bourne Ultimatum, I’m not sure if director Paul Greengrass expected me to go back and watch the trilogy to catch up, or if he, like me, just didn’t care and threw all of us right back into the action.
There’s a certain boldness film franchises about super spies carry. What happened in the past films may recur, but it’s not why we’re watching or invested. The die hard fans can recall the minor plot detailing, but what’s understood is that Tom Cruise, Daniel Craig, and Jason Bourne are on a mission and they’re out to whoop some ass.
The one constant of Bourne films is that our protagonist Jason Bourne is trying to remember the past that was wiped away from him. In Bourne 4, Jason has suppressed memories of his father that he ends up piecing together with the help of Nicky Parsons who makes a swift entrance and a quick exit.
Parsons, played by Julia Stiles who is locked in as the actress for a Ronda Rousey documentary, was also in the Bourne Ultimatum so there’s that recurring storyline coming into play.
Parsons retrieves key information about the Treadstone project, the project that created Bourne, and the next CIA super project. Bourne is more concerned with learning his own history, and enacting his revenge on whomever killed his father.
Luckily for Bourne, the guy who wants to kill him is his father’s killer, and was tortured when Bourne exposed Blackbriar, a previous CIA operation. The killer is only given the name Asset, which the assumption would lead that this isn’t his real name, because that would just be too convenient. Asset is under the jurisdiction of Tommy Lee Jones who plays scathing CIA director Robert Dewey.
Oh and how could I forget the classic return to the CIA operations room, another constant of the Bourne series. No matter how advanced the technology in that room gets, Jason Bourne is always one step ahead.
Dewey conspires with the Asset to kill Bourne which is much to the chagrin of Heather Lee, played by an intense and composed Alicia Vikander. Vikander will play Tomb Raider in 2018, and while the movie is likely going to be awful, Vikander makes sense for the role and you can see why here. Heather Lee tries to play a middle ground where she can appease Bourne while stay in Dewey’s good graces until she can replace him.
What Bourne 4 did very well is establish three very strong characters around Bourne for the moments that Bourne isn’t on screen, the intensity isn’t lost. This was a quality Judi Dench mastered in the Bond films. Tommy Lee Jones and Vikander play nicely off each other and while Asset looks like an crumbly old KGB agent, he is as ruthless as an assassin gets murdering anyone in his way.
There’s a sidewinding subplot attempt to bring in the social media and private security discussion. The subplot is focused on a social media monopoly overlord called Deep Dream, which is basically Zuckerberg’s plans for Facebook in 2020. While there’s quite a bit of time devoted to it, it’s just a cheap plot device to set up an explosive final act.
Bourne meets with Dewey and is nearly taken out, but saved by the timely bullet from Lee. Bourne exits to pursue Asset.
There’s an absurdly long car chase. Than a final fight scene. Bourne dispatches of Asset’s neck. Bourne says nothing in perfect Bourne fashion and walks away.
The movie ends with Lee attempting to persuade Bourne to come back and work for the CIA, but we know Bourne too well. He says he’ll think about it knowing full well the cycle will only go on for the end of time. The CIA will forever chase Bourne until Matt Damon can’t furrow his eyebrows any longer.
Alternate titles for Jason Bourne:
- The Bourne Recompense
- The Bourne Father Fiasco
- The Bourne We’ve Got One More Matt Damon Movie Left in Us
- Matt Damon is Chinese?
