by: Andres Eloy Sereno Hernandez
edited by: Anthony Zangrillo
Nine years after the last Bourne movie that included Matt Damon premiered; Paul Greengrass brings to life the last installment of this franchise. Maintaining the high quality of the previous films and with the return of the main characters of the original trilogy, Jason Bourne seems lacking of purpose. Using the same formula, putting Matt Damon through hell in different cities across the world while he’s answering questions of his past and at the same time feeding the idea of how his own country’s government betrayed him, feels a little too familiar. This time the creative team is consumed with the lack of privacy within the social network age, and the issue of government surveillance, and even gave Snowden a few shout-outs.
In The Bourne Ultimatum, Bourne’s memory resurfaces and he goes underground after exposing those responsible for Operation Treadstone and Blackbiar and sent Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) into hiding. Now, Nicky Parsons reaches Bourne in order to give him information about how he was recruited and his father’s role in the Operation and his training. At the same time, CIA director Robert Dewey, played very well by Tommy Lee Jones, counterinsurgency expert and hacker Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander) to find Parsons and Bourne. After finding out that his father was killed by the CIA because he did not want his son to enter the program and become a killer, Jason Bourne unleashes a revenge pursuit against the director.
The performances were good with a few highlights coming from the new additions of the film; the talented actress Alicia Vikander (Ex-Machina), who did a great job bringing to life the brilliant young analyst Heather Lee, and Tommy Lee Jones whose “no-bs” and stern attitude reinforce his character’s intentions and motivations. Matt Damon is solid and does a great work in the action scenes, which is expected.
The film doesn’t have the catch the original trilogy had. The Bourne movies aren’t just spy/action movies. There was always something more. The movies were relevant and subversive towards the government with a plot that made audiences not only feel satisfied with well crafted action scenes but with a well-thought-out and intelligent script . This time the action scenes remain as superb as usual but the plot is too basic and repetitive that overall harms the Bourne brand.
This is definitely the second to worst Bourne movie (Jeremy Renner’s Bourne Legacy was simply unnecessary and disastrous). But even being the weakest of the ones with Matt Damon, this film is still better than most of action movies premiering this year.
Score: 6.5/10
