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In 2012, Matt Damon took a break from his popular Bourne films while Jeremy Renner expanded the franchise in The Bourne Legacy. But now Damon and director Paul Greengrass are both back to continue the search for answers in Jason Bourne.
Jason Bourne finds Damon’s former CIA operative coming out of hiding after Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) hacks into the CIA’s database to uncover information about the Agency’s black ops, learning more about Bourne’s past in the process. But the hack attracts the attention of Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander), head of the CIA’s cyber division, as well as CIA Director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones), who team up to track down Bourne and Parsons in an attempt to keep top-secret information from being leaked to the public.
If you’ve seen the other Bourne movies, you’ll know what to expect from the latest one. It’s fast and frenetic, with just a hint of a story. Damon focuses more on his action skills than his acting skills—but, after a decade in the role, he doesn’t really have to say a thing; fans already love him. The plot, meanwhile, gets as little development as possible—just a few quick conversations between chases and fights and explosions. It’s really more of suggestion of a story—a framework that viewers get to fill in for themselves as they race through Athens and Rome and Berlin and Las Vegas. There are plenty of ideas at play here, and the film touches on timely issues involving security, surveillance, and privacy without bogging the pace down with details.
Mostly, though, it’s just a lot of frenzied, out-of-focus action—the kind that you’ll find in any Paul Greengrass film. If you suffer from motion sickness, seeing this film is a serious risk to your health and well-being—so be prepared either to close your eyes through non-essential parts or dose up on Dramamine before the film begins. Because the footage is as quick and unstable as ever, never allowing viewers to focus on anything. On one hand, that’s part of what makes it so thrilling—that sense of urgency that comes with a shaking camera chasing after our strong but generally silent hero. On the other hand, though, it’s a shame—because even in the moments when the camera could allow audiences to catch their breath and rest their stomachs, it continues to move, even blurring out many of the film’s striking settings.
The action in Jason Bourne is definitely non-stop—though, with its two-hour runtime, it all goes on just a little longer than necessary (while adding little information to Bourne’s story). But if you’re a fan of the Bourne films, you’ll still enjoy the crashes and shootouts and international conspiracy of the latest installment.
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