It has been 10 years since Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) walked away from the agency that trained him to be a deadly weapon.
Still unable to remember much of his past and unwilling to address his future, Bourne makes money fighting for illegal gambling.
When a hacker discovers a trove of data that not only exposes the different CIA programs which create people like Bourne, she also uncovers the truth about his past. She will lead Bourne down a trail of memories that leads to his true identity.
We ask, “Does anyone care?”
TAYLOR: I don’t. I could have, but this film doesn’t really have anything exciting to reveal. I was disappointed. I’ve grown accustomed to action films doling out information at a snail’s pace, but to wait through this film to learn, via flashbacks of fuzzy memories, that things are kind of what you expect them to be and life goes on, was a bit angering. The film’s marketing led me to believe I was going to get “all the answers.” I feel robbed of my two hours.
HOWE: But why would they want to give you all of the answers? That means they couldn’t make anymore films, but how I wish that they would stop making them. The problem, I see, is that the original trilogy written by Robert Ludlow was fantastic. This new one written, or should that be thrown together by whomever, is messy. They probably thought they could get another payday out of the dying franchise. The action scenes are a mess. The storyline is weak and has been seen numerous times.
Don’t get me started on Tommy Lee Jones. Even though he is a fine actor, well sometimes, he is the weakest link in Jason Bourne. I’ve seen better acting from a potato.
TAYLOR: I didn’t like the action sequences. They used the fast-cut style of the tired action hero. Every move during a fight scene had its own camera angle. This gets tiresome to viewers and they stop paying attention. The film’s soundtrack tells us when the scene is over. This movie is also full of walking and watching. I can’t remember a film showing more people watching people walk. People walk down the street; other people watch them on screens in Langley Virginia, CIA headquarters. We watch people watch people walk. Then, someone new starts walking, “Get a camera on that guy!” It started to get funny after awhile, because I thought it was going to stop. It doesn’t until the very end, when Jason Bourne walks away from the camera, hopefully for the last time.
HOWE: I really thought after The Bourne Legacy with Jeremy Renner that they could have made something special by bringing the two agency programs together. Alas, they didn’t. That is why we have this lacklustre film in the form of Jason Bourne.
TAYLOR: They’ve already announced another one.
HOWE: Oh, lucky us.
– Taylor gives Jason Bourne 2 new sneakers out of 5.
– Howe gives it 2 please no, no more out of 5.
Brian Taylor and Peter Howe are film reviewers based in Vernon. Their column, Reel Reviews, appears in The Morning Star Friday.