Too much message, not enough movie.
When I saw the trailers for the new Jason Bourne, I admit that I was rather excited. The Bourne Trilogy remains a great trilogy action-thrillers that really set the tone for action films in the 2000s. (I don’t think it’s much of a coincidence that James Bond took a darker turn with Casino Royale when they rebooted the series.) With its down-to-earth aesthetic, reliance on technology, and gritty-realism, they stood out at the time and haven’t aged too poorly.
I hadn’t seen the Bourne Legacy until I decided to rewatch all the Bourne films in preparation of the new movie, and decided that it wasn’t too bad. While it was clearly in the Bourne universe, it wasn’t like the other movies, which I thought was a good thing. Jeremy Renner really brought a different feel for the American Super Soldier character, with a sense of dry humor and curiosity. Unfortunately, the plot was just okay and the pacing was off-kilter, leaving with a rather anti-climactic ending. Still, not a bad movie.
The new one, however, has some real issues. (Minor spoilers ahead.)
As I sat down, I was prepared for more gritty-realistic action, technobabble, and some conspiracy busting, but what I didn’t expect was a preachy message sitting in the middle of it all. While I admit that I generally agree with the message, the way it was implemented in the movie was awful. It was almost like they had take two similar movies and tried to make them one, and it just doesn’t work.
The story has Nicky Parsons (previous Treadstone agent from the earlier films) meeting up with Jason Bourne to tell him there is more to the supposedly dead project, but doesn’t quite get to tell him before she dies, so he has to hunt down the truth on his own, specifically regarding his biological father’s role in program that created him.
Meanwhile, Robert Dewey, the director of the CIA, also has helped to fund a now successful social media platform, but the owner Aaron Kalloor is thinking about backing out of the deal, knowing that the CIA wants a backdoor to all the data and surveillance opportunities such a program would provide. It’s not a bad idea for a thriller, but it just sort of feels like it’s there for the sake of the message they want to convey.
These two nearly unassociated plot points eventually come to a head in end, but by the time it gets there, you will have been hammered to death with its message about pro digital rights, pro digital privacy, and anti-government surveillance that it’s hard to feel any kind of payoff or real excitement.
Besides the plotting, there are other issues. Paul Greengrass’ infamous shaky-cam style is in full effect. While it was moderately tolerable in the earlier films, it really grates in this one. An early extended sequence in Greece where Bourne is evading and fighting agents in the middle of a violent protest is so chaotic, I got a headache. Action has no flow, things are obscured with blur and lens flares, and there is absolutely no sense of geography. It’s also during these scene where we see Julia Stiles completely phone it in as Nicky Parsons. Her lines are completely wooden and stiff, and you can almost see her desire to be done with it as soon as possible. Fortunately, you don’t see her for the whole film, but it does stand out as rather awful.
Not to say that the movie is a complete waste. Tommy Lee Jones sells the heck out of his character as Robert Dewey, effortlessly shifting from near paternal softness to terrifying authority figure. It’s probably not his best work, but it’s proof that he’s still one of the best in the business at these sort of roles. Vincent Cassel plays a somewhat compelling government agent that gives Bourne someone to match wits and trade bullets with.
There is some decent action along the way and a pretty good car chase towards the end of the film that involves a SWAT truck. And the soundtrack, bringing back John Powell for the fifth time in the franchise, remains compelling and powerful, and what would a Bourne film be with Moby’s “Extreme Ways”?
As for Matt Damon, he doesn’t really bring a lot to the table, merely shifting from sulking to yelling questions to beating the crap out of people back to sulking. There really isn’t much to the character arc than just adding a rather basic revenge story. It’s pretty clear he did all that could with the character after The Bourne Ultimatum.
Overall, it’s mostly a wash. A few decent action scenes and some “meh” thirller moments, it’s probably not worth your money to see it right now. It’s also obvious that the makers want to turn this into another never-ending franchise (like everything else in the movie industry). Some characters drop some sequel-hook-y lines at the end, but I don’t know if I want to see another Jason Bourne film after this one.
However, if they decide to bring Jeremy Renner back in and use his character to take on some unique angles on the established universe, I would stand in line for that.
Grade: C-
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