Jones makes for a predictably crotchety CIA director who, no surprise, has dark secrets he’ll kill to have protected. However Greengrass and Damon do acknowledge that the actor, who turns 46 in October, is no longer the same agile young man, putting Bourne in harrowing situations where he fails, struggling mightily to stay alive.
Damon’s Bourne is far more stoic this time around, economically dispensing with bad guys and outthinking his pursuers as always. (Likewise, Jason Bourne’s attempts to continue the franchise’s criticism of America’s intrusive intelligence and national-security apparatuses tends to come across as forced.)Ĭonsequently, this is the first Bourne film to derive almost the entirety of its entertainment value from the stylish sheen of Greengrass’s action set pieces. The introduction of a long-dead father, who might have taken an important clue to Bourne’s past with him to the grave, feels more like a convoluted excuse for Greengrass to put Bourne through another white-knuckle thriller, rather than an organic extension of his lingering emotional scars.
As Bourne, Damon brought not just persuasive action-movie heroics but also vulnerability and apprehension, effectively conveying a killing machine who is not quite sure how he ended up that way.ĭamon remains a sympathetic presence, but Jason Bourne never fully justifies Bourne’s return. The frenetic action and jittery pace are executed skilfully by frequent Greengrass collaborators such as cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, editor Christopher Rouse (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Greengrass) and co-composer John Powell.īut if the series’ tone and look have been faithfully reproduced, what’s harder to recreate is the original films’ sense of a haunted man seeking to unlock the mystery of his murky past. But once Bourne discovers that the CIA is working on an even more ambitious spy program than the one that trained him - and that he might learn what happened to his agent father - Bourne comes out of the shadows, pursued by a ruthless hitman referred to only as The Asset (Vincent Cassel).Īlthough it has been nearly a decade since Damon and Greengrass have worked on a Bourne film, Jason Bourne’s kinetic filmmaking and the actor’s blunt intensity feel very much in keeping with their two previous collaborations, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. Still, mildly positive reviews may lead to only tempered enthusiasm for this sequel, resulting in solid but perhaps not spectacular grosses.Īs the film begins, Bourne (Damon) is living off the grid, trying to avoid the watchful eye of CIA director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones), who wants the onetime-assassin eliminated. (By comparison, The Bourne Ultimatum collected $443 million.) It has been nine long years since Damon played the spy, but as he’s coming off the biggest hit of his career with The Martian ($630 million worldwide), there’s little doubt that he remains a major draw. Hitting several territories by July 29, Jason Bourne looks to regain the franchise’s lustre after 2012’s underperforming The Bourne Legacy, which didn’t feature Greengrass or Damon and grossed only $276 million worldwide.
If Bourne is the film’s brawny bruiser, she is its sly fox. This sequel’s most welcome addition is Alicia Vikander, as our hero’s smart, resourceful aide within America’s intelligence community. What’s missing are the emotional underpinnings that made these movies not just top-flight action vehicles but also stirringly soulful. Sending the adept super-spy on another globetrotting adventure that again pits him against the US intelligence community, this follow-up to 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum never matches the peaks of the original trilogy, but its smooth efficiency offers plenty of sturdy pleasures. Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon go through the motions expertly in Jason Bourne, an enjoyable but also stubbornly familiar sequel.
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