Jason Bourne

Year: 2016
Genre: Action
Directed: Paul Greengrass
Stars: Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, Julia Stiles, Riz Ahmed, Ato Essandoh, Scott Shepherd, Bill Camp, Vinzenz Kiefer, Stephen Kunken, Kaya Yuzuki
Production: Universal

I never truly understood the appeal of the Bourne Series (2002-Present). On the surface the original trilogy had all the makings of an above-average action spy flick; a charismatic lead, a taut and compelling story-line, unique action set-pieces topped off with competent (if hard to see) fighting choreography. Yet postmortem labeling the originals as the "thinking-man's action trilogy" is giving way too much credit to what is essentially a shell game a degree grittier than Alias (2001-2006). But hey both the James Bond and the Jack Ryan series' were contrivances of their former selves by the time Identity was released, so I suppose next to Die Another Day (2002) and Sum of All Fears (2002) Bourne (Damon) was a godsend.

Someone please remember this movie!

But in case no one got the message, we're not living in 2002. If the Bourne series was a person it'd be old enough to hold down a menial part-time job; which is about the quantity and quality of work dedicated to Jason Bourne the newest and most disappointing installment. Jason Bourne finds sidelined ally Nicky Parsons (Stiles) hacking into the CIA's mainframe and stealing meta-data for a political hacktivist named Dassault (Kiefer). While doing so she digs up more information on Bourne and his life before joining the clandestine Black Ops program that made him into a super-smart killing machine. This new information implicates CIA Director Robert Dewey (Jones) and retroactively absolves Bourne from any complicity in making him the super-smart killing machine he is, basically turning the best movie of the series, Ultimatum (2007), into little more than a hiccup. Meanwhile Dewey is having a spat with Silicon Valley tech billionaire Aaron Kalloor whose new social media enterprise is to be released. Dewey wants access to the code to "keep America safe," while Kalloor wants his new platform to be a "revolution in internet privacy," despite, of course, being bankrolled by the big bad federal government.

Never happened...

If taken as an action thriller completely free from context, Jason Bourne could have been worse. As the nearly catatonic Bourne, Matt Damon still wears the character like a comfortable, worn-out shoe bringing to mind the muscled, tank-topped grisliness of Sylvester Stallone in Rambo III (1988). He's a bit of a lark but his constant quest for self-determination still holds a certain dimmed purity next to the morally ambiguous excreta his enemies lather in. The frenetic pace of the car chases brings the most amount of satisfaction. Director Paul Greengrass aptly utilizes the neon glinted Las Vegas strip and the urban, stair dominated corridors of the Canary Islands (Athens in the movie) to create some real tension. Fans of the series will also be glad to know that the controlled chaos shaky-cam aesthetic is back...so hurrah for that.

Riveting...

Yet Jason Bourne fails to deliver on almost all other counts giving its audience pale imitations of what they once enjoyed. The kinetic fight sequences that made the first films so compelling has been replaced by frenetic shots of CIA control rooms where operatives are frantically clacking away at computers. Gone are the days of close-range brawling replaced by people in suits walking down busy streets with stubborn obstinacy. Instead of a the cool, calculated Clive Owen or the mischievous Karl Urban, we get a hotheaded and vengeful Vincent Cassel whose backstory we couldn't give two s**ts about.

Want me to tell you about a dream I had?

Then of course there's Tommy Lee Jones whose neocon Bush Era, Blackwater, shadow government, conspiratorial wish-fulfillment fantasy B.S. is just sad now. Don't get me wrong, Jones sells the hell out of it in the best way a coasting star could, but his very inclusion in a modern spy thriller is about as current as having a Russian with a five o'clock shadow playing the bad guy. At least the film somewhat acknowledges the character's anachronistic inclusion by having him butt heads with the socially conscious Kalloor and upstart CIA agent Heather Lee (Vikander).

The results of Dewey and Kalloor's Faustian bargain could and should have been the "smart-man" interjection that everyone seems to be prattling on about. Instead of being stitched into the plot however, issues of internet privacy remains in the stratosphere. At no point is Bourne, Parsons or young Nicky Parsons replacement Heather made aware of Dewey's machinations, yet in a flurry of half-remembered memories, Bourne vows revenge, thwarting Dewey as an undeserved bonus.

Come on, I forgot the secret knock!

Jason Bourne is franchise maintenance at its absolute laziest. It's the unneeded piece of pie after a three course meal. A reboot of a system already out of date. No one wanted it, no one deserved it, yet here it is, cashing in the good name of its predecessors for a chance to get into the clubhouse. Frankly even the series' cousin Bourne Legacy (2012) is asking you not to let it in.

Final Grade: D+