ReviewFilm review: Jason Bourne – clichéd, generic sequel reunites Matt Damon, Paul Greengrass
Great action and chase scenes marred by flimsy back story and pedestrian plot in fifth outing for Robert Ludlum’s government-service killer with memory loss
2/5 stars
As the golden boy of amnesiac assassins returns for more head cracking and soul searching, just how much more mileage is there after 12 novels, an excellent trilogy (2002-2007), and the decent (but Bourne-less) “sidequel” The Bourne Legacy (2012)? Not much, it turns out, despite the return of star Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass.
After the obligatory flashback of Bourne killing lots of people real good, we’re straight into a newish plot involving conflicted CIA director Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander’s ambitious counter-insurgency expert and tech entrepreneur Riz Ahmed.
It kicks off with Bourne’s old ally Julia Stiles hacking his file, and telling him there’s more he needs to know about his past. But unless his surname’s Skywalker, how much worse can it get? You can practically smell editor-turned-screenwriter Christopher Rouse cooking up a flimsy family back story to bring our hero back into the fray.
At least Greengrass dives straight into the action. Think urgent music, glitchy cinematography, lots of anxious touch-typing and scene after scene of the globetrotting Bourne nearly killing people, before black ops spooks (headed by the evil Vincent Cassel) arrive to finish the job. You know the drill, and that’s the problem: it’s entirely generic, even if it’s a genre that the Bourne series revolutionised.