For the umpteenth summer in a row, the "big" US film season has been awash in sequels, remakes and Connected Universe films.
Apart from Civil War it has mostly been a bust for me with most films either just hitting a passing grade, or outright failing.
So it was with some trepidation that I went to see Jason Bourne tonight.
The Bourne Trilogy (love you Renner, but your film doesn't count) is my favourite action franchise of the new millennium. I appreciate that its style, specifically Paul Greengrass' penchant for hand-held camera action scenes, is not for everyone. But Jason's arc, coupled with the emotional themes running through the trilogy, truly engaged me. The trio of films sit up there with Aliens, Empire, LOTR and a slew of other films that, if I come across them flicking through the channels on TV, no matter what point the film is at, I'll settle down and watch it to the end.
The series (like any franchise) has its formula, but what set it apart was the emotional undercurrent and intelligent (for BIG FILM) take on the genre.
The formula is here for Jason Bourne too:
The brutal, wince-inducing hand-to-hand fight
The car chase
The hunt for Bourne in a crowded arena
The dastardly government villain
What is missing is the emotional connection. Through some retconning and rather tortuous plot twists, Bourne is dragged back into the mix. The film thinks it has a strong emotional reason for Bourne to come back into play, but the means in which it is deployed feels forced and convenient. With this initial mis-step, the rest of what comes lacks a real centre and believable emotional core for the swirling mass of carnage, intrigue and backstabbing to take place. Which is a shame, because most of the formula works well.
What is really fascinating is how little Bourne says in this film. He has always been a man of action, purpose and taciturnity. But there are lovely quiet little moments where he is allowed to be and what makes the trilogy so good for me. Here, he has a drive, and it all plays across Damon's face. He, as always, does well with what he is given, but with the lack of dialogue, I was wondering if I was watching a Terminator film at times.
The surrounding cast do well, especially Vikander as the CIA cyber-specialist whose ego, counterpointing her political naivete, gets the better of her a few times. Vincent Cassell gives weight to the "on the ground" nemesis, whilst Tommy Lee Jones takes up the mantle left by David Strathain and Brian Cox from the earlier films. Jones would give a remarkable performance reading the contents of your shampoo bottle, and he brings a calm sense of menace to his CIA boss.
The action is pure Greengrass and is remarkably edited by Co-writer Chris Rouse. You either like it, or you don't. He certainly won't convert anyone with Jason Bourne. The staging, use of space and crowds in the early Greece riots sequence is remarkable, nearly on par with the Waterloo scenes from Ultimatum, but I can hear the rants of the "shakey-cam" arguments being spooled up already. And, whilst not as cathartic as the sequence from Supremacy, the car chase is big, bombastic and eye-widening.
There is a thread of "torn from the news" about the plot, which I won't delve into, but it feels like a natural progression from the Treadstone project and how security agencies have shifted their focus on "defending" the public and attacking the enemy. It could have been dug into deeper and given the piece a sense of depth and grounding, but the focus here is dragging Bourne back into the fray and, for me, this is the films main faltering idea.
It was certainly more entertaining than the vast majority of the big Spring/Summer releases, and a palate cleanser after Legacy's generic dullness, but it is certainly the weakest of Damon's Bourne outings, by a decent margin.
Bourne Identity - 8/10
Bourne Supremacy - 9/10
Bourne Ultimatum - 8/10
Jason Bourne - 6/10
Hugo - Legacy? Put three bullets in its back and dumped it over the side of the boat.
Apart from Civil War it has mostly been a bust for me with most films either just hitting a passing grade, or outright failing.
So it was with some trepidation that I went to see Jason Bourne tonight.
The Bourne Trilogy (love you Renner, but your film doesn't count) is my favourite action franchise of the new millennium. I appreciate that its style, specifically Paul Greengrass' penchant for hand-held camera action scenes, is not for everyone. But Jason's arc, coupled with the emotional themes running through the trilogy, truly engaged me. The trio of films sit up there with Aliens, Empire, LOTR and a slew of other films that, if I come across them flicking through the channels on TV, no matter what point the film is at, I'll settle down and watch it to the end.
The series (like any franchise) has its formula, but what set it apart was the emotional undercurrent and intelligent (for BIG FILM) take on the genre.
The formula is here for Jason Bourne too:
The brutal, wince-inducing hand-to-hand fight
The car chase
The hunt for Bourne in a crowded arena
The dastardly government villain
What is missing is the emotional connection. Through some retconning and rather tortuous plot twists, Bourne is dragged back into the mix. The film thinks it has a strong emotional reason for Bourne to come back into play, but the means in which it is deployed feels forced and convenient. With this initial mis-step, the rest of what comes lacks a real centre and believable emotional core for the swirling mass of carnage, intrigue and backstabbing to take place. Which is a shame, because most of the formula works well.
What is really fascinating is how little Bourne says in this film. He has always been a man of action, purpose and taciturnity. But there are lovely quiet little moments where he is allowed to be and what makes the trilogy so good for me. Here, he has a drive, and it all plays across Damon's face. He, as always, does well with what he is given, but with the lack of dialogue, I was wondering if I was watching a Terminator film at times.
The surrounding cast do well, especially Vikander as the CIA cyber-specialist whose ego, counterpointing her political naivete, gets the better of her a few times. Vincent Cassell gives weight to the "on the ground" nemesis, whilst Tommy Lee Jones takes up the mantle left by David Strathain and Brian Cox from the earlier films. Jones would give a remarkable performance reading the contents of your shampoo bottle, and he brings a calm sense of menace to his CIA boss.
The action is pure Greengrass and is remarkably edited by Co-writer Chris Rouse. You either like it, or you don't. He certainly won't convert anyone with Jason Bourne. The staging, use of space and crowds in the early Greece riots sequence is remarkable, nearly on par with the Waterloo scenes from Ultimatum, but I can hear the rants of the "shakey-cam" arguments being spooled up already. And, whilst not as cathartic as the sequence from Supremacy, the car chase is big, bombastic and eye-widening.
There is a thread of "torn from the news" about the plot, which I won't delve into, but it feels like a natural progression from the Treadstone project and how security agencies have shifted their focus on "defending" the public and attacking the enemy. It could have been dug into deeper and given the piece a sense of depth and grounding, but the focus here is dragging Bourne back into the fray and, for me, this is the films main faltering idea.
It was certainly more entertaining than the vast majority of the big Spring/Summer releases, and a palate cleanser after Legacy's generic dullness, but it is certainly the weakest of Damon's Bourne outings, by a decent margin.
Bourne Identity - 8/10
Bourne Supremacy - 9/10
Bourne Ultimatum - 8/10
Jason Bourne - 6/10
Hugo - Legacy? Put three bullets in its back and dumped it over the side of the boat.
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