Movie Review: Jason Bourne

Movie Review                          Jason Bourne

CAST:

Matt Damon

Tommy Lee Jones

Julia Stiles

Alicia Vikander

The Mrs. and I took in a movie today. I enjoyed “Jason Bourne” as a reasonable expenditure of two hours of escapism time. MCN? Not so much. She didn't hate it. But now I owe her one.

I had enjoyed the first three Bourne flicks and had been interested to see how the movie producers, directors and writers would carry on after his creator, Robert Ludlum passed. I had not thought much of the fourth film, “The Bourne Legacy”. It had just barely paid passing homage to the franchise and didn't even feature Matt Damon as the real Bourne. So when ten years after the “Bourne Ultimatum” had left the story line satisfactorily concluded but open for other developments, I had let my hopes rise that Matt Damon's return would allow us to forget and forgive the “Legacy” detour.

Not to be. The co-writers of the screenplay simply are not the reincarnation of Ludlum. What they cooked up was a storyline reminiscent of books two and three, “Supremacy” and “Ultimatum” with only a tiny bit of new ground covered. The new ground dealt with our need to come to grips with advancing technology. Could the CIA spy on everyone they wished?

The main efforts to recreate the Bourne magic, though, involved trying to ramp up the chase scenes and fight scenes to new levels. The Las Vegas car chase might have been a bigger deal if it had not already been done in “Con Air”. And the fight was pretty much like fights in “Supremacy” and “Ultimatum”.

But I also thought character development was wanting. The story offered nothing concerning Bourne's ten year gap. They must not have wanted to dwell on that. Get right to the rock'em sock'em action instead.

Or take the Tommy Lee Jones character, CIA Director Dewey. I believe this was a newly developed character needed because Bourne had taken out the people in charge during his first three books. Yet Dewey implies to Bourne he's been around the entire time. Don't think so.

Finally there's the Nickie Parsons character. After surviving four movies, she gets killed off in this film. But prior to this there are vague facts indicating she has become some kind of CIA counterinsurgent. She reaches out to Jason Bourne to fill in the last gaps in his original memory lapse and encourage him to seek revenge on Dewey and the CIA for wrongs done to him and his father. I would have liked more on Parsons as to how and why she does what she does. Also how does she know what she knows if she's been on the outside?

So, bottom line, I enjoyed Jason Bourne. A film doesn't have to be perfect to be somewhat enjoyable. And based on the previews we watched, I wouldn't have wanted to spend my August movie money on anything else.