Jason Bourne

They just ran out of nouns I guess. That’s what happens when you make more than three… you start running out of nouns. Imagine the pressure to come up with a really good noun after the likes of “Identify”, “Supremacy”, and “Ultimatum” – those are all great nouns. You might get four nouns maybe (“Legacy” is not bad I guess), but five… give it up. And so they did… just called it Jason Bourne. Oh, they also gave up on finding anything new to wrap this fifth Bourne film around – they ran out of story for Bourne to act on. Just used the same stuff – warped CIA directors, foreign assets living in small hotel rooms (who takes these jobs?), and Jason Bourne’s fractured psyche. It’s all kind of the same. In fact, some of it is exactly the same… but it still sort of works.

We left Jason Bourne a couple of films ago after he discovered his true identity and faced down his creators. He said that it “ended there”, back in Ultimatum, but it didn’t. He says he remembers everything now. But it turns out he still doesn’t have the whole story, so we need Universal to keep making these movies – it’s about closure I guess… and millions of dollars in profits. We now find Bourne off the grid in Greece – a traveling fist fighter, beating and allowing himself to be beaten on – a sort of self-imposed punishment, we suppose, for all of the damage he’s done. Bourne’s wracked with guilt for the lives he’s taken as Treadstone’s super assassin and unclear about his true nature – is he a killer at his core or a brain-washed victim of an off-track security machine? Enter former colleague and Moped partner Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) who has continued to monitor the CIA’s nasty doings via the cyber-underground since she went on the run in Ultimatum.  She has information about a new and even more insidious CIA program and has also stumbled onto some troubling news about Bourne’s father Darth Vader… errr, I mean Richard Webb and his role in Treadstone. And Bang! Bourne has something to do again – it’s tired motivation, but it’s something. 

The first thing to do of course is to get out the old passports and start Bourne Carmen San Diego-ing around the globe – check. On the other side, the CIA still has access to every camera everywhere (including in space) and they pick up Bourne’s re-entry – check. Some of them get that “we’re in deep stuff” look on their faces and plot to take out Bourne because he knows too much – check. While others raise one eyebrow guessing that something is amiss here – check, check, check, and… check, check. It’s like setting up for a game of Clue for the umpteenth time – same suspects, same rooms. But we keep playing Clue don’t we? And you’ll keep watching Jason Bourne. Because despite the familiarity, the film is still able to create significant tension. Writer-director Paul Greengrass’ action is consistently crisp. Although not as good as those in Ultimatum, Bourne’s confrontations and chase scenes are still exciting and all pulled off without the over-the-top CGI bombast that most blockbusters fall back on. Still, the hub-bub seems less important this time. Even a new out-of-the-headlines subplot that has the CIA secretly embedding a massive surveillance program within a popular social media platform fails to generate the energy of the original trilogy. The lack of an intriguing story line puts it all back on an older, thicker Bourne to carry the film home – quick-walking, almost reluctantly this time, in search of himself. Jason Bourne is still frenetic and fun, but its path is worn and has lost a step or two. 6 out of 10.