Review of 'Jason Bourne'

jason_bourne.jpg Who'd have thought we would have seen Bourne (Matt Damon) again on the big screen having retained his memory and resolved all of his problems, surely there is nothing else to tell? Well, it turns out, there is…of course. Bourne is laying low hiding from the CIA, taking on fights for cash in Greece (and, of course, beating every one of them). When Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) breaks into the CIA systems she finds “black ops” information about various programs including Blackbriar, Treadstone and a previously unknown program Ironhand as well as evidence that Bourne's father, Richard Webb (Gregg Henry), was somehow involved. The CIA, of course, are onto her and when she meets up with Bourne in Greece with the evidence things go…badly with a hitman called The Asset (Vincent Cassel) attacking them. Bourne escapes to London and learns that his father's death was not entirely an accident and had a lot to do with why Bourne joined the CIA. In the meantime the head of Internet company Deep Dream, Aaron Kalloor (Riz Ahmed), is marketing an application that proports to provide privacy services but, in reality, have backdoors for the CIA though this does not sit well with Kalloor. All the strands come together at a Deep Dream convention in Last Vegas…Yes, there will be car crashes and explosions.

I have to say that I should have learned my lesson when watching The Bourne Ultimatum where I felt quite motion sick, this time was no different. The frenetic action, tight, shaky camera work in the first 30 minutes was enough to make me feel very uncomfortable as I attempted to follow what the heck was going on. Leaving that aside, what did I think of the film itself…?

It is yet another Bourne movie and though there are a few new revelations for fans of the series otherwise it is more of the same: Elaborate chase and action scenes. Bourne, as always, says little, seeming to kill more people than the number of words he utters. The plot here is not as confusing as in the previous movies but that is probably for the best as this is yet another popcorn movie - Viewers want action not exposition. As previously mentioned the camerawork is extremely shaky - Even relatively calm scenes where people are talking the camera noticeably meanders all over the place…It does add, however, to the frenetic pace.

Nothing new here and it made me feel woozy so I can't say I really enjoyed it…

Rating: “A bit better than average”

Review Date: 2016-08-20


Directed by: Paul Greengrass

Studio: Universal Pictures

Year: 2016

Length: 123 minutes

Genre: Action/Adventure

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4196776


Other reviewed films by Paul Greengrass: