Jason Bourne is the franchise's most unnecessary entry and its most dramatically hollow, a film that reunites Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon nine years after The Bourne Ultimatum and uses that reunion to deliver a kinetically impressive but narratively inert retread of the trilogy's established formula without adding anything of real dramatic value or intelligence. Greengrass's direction is as kinetically accomplished as ever, and Damon's physical commitment to the role remains as impressive as it was in the trilogy's finest entries. But the film gives Bourne a new mystery about his father's involvement in the Treadstone programme that generates almost no dramatic interest, introduces a villain of such complete inadequacy that he makes The Bourne Legacy's Eric Byer look formidable by comparison, and delivers its action sequences with a kinetic intensity that the absence of real dramatic consequence makes feel increasingly hollow. Jason Bourne is the franchise running on reputation. It is not the franchise at its best.
At a Glance
Director: Paul Greengrass
Runtime: 123 minutes
Starring: Matt Damon, Alicia Vikander, Tommy Lee Jones, Vincent Cassel, Julia Stiles
Release: 2016
Critics Rating: ★★ (2/5 stars, kinetically impressive but dramatically hollow)
Audience Rating: ★★½ (2.5/5 stars, disappointing)
Review Breakdown
Plot
Bourne, living off the grid and earning money in underground fighting circuits, is drawn back into the world of intelligence when Nicky Parsons contacts him with information about a new programme and about his father's involvement in the creation of Treadstone. The CIA, led by Director Robert Dewey, sends an asset to eliminate both of them. The plot is the franchise's most dramatically redundant, a narrative that retreads the established formula of Bourne discovering new information about his past and being pursued by CIA operatives with almost no real development or consequence. The father subplot is the film's most significant failure, a revelation of such limited emotional impact and insufficient development that it generates almost no dramatic engagement.
Characters
Bourne is given the franchise's least dramatically interesting material since The Bourne Legacy, a character whose arc is primarily physical rather than psychological. Damon plays the character with a physical commitment and screen presence that makes Bourne feel compelling in his action sequences, but the film does not give him the psychological complexity or moral dimension that made the trilogy's finest entries so rewarding. Alicia Vikander's Heather Lee is the film's most dramatically interesting new character, a CIA analyst of intelligence and moral ambiguity whose motivations are handled with enough complexity to make her the film's most compelling presence. Tommy Lee Jones's Director Dewey is the franchise's least dramatically interesting major villain, a CIA official of adequate menace and almost no psychological depth.
Tone
Greengrass pitches the film at the franchise's most kinetically intense register, a decision that suits the director's established visual style but generates a hollowness when the kinetic intensity is not supported by real dramatic consequence. Jason Bourne has the visual energy and physical immediacy of the finest Greengrass entries, with action sequences staged with kinetic intelligence and physical clarity that makes them the franchise's most technically accomplished since the Ultimatum. But the absence of real dramatic consequence makes the kinetic intensity feel increasingly hollow as the film progresses.
Meaning / Themes
The film gestures toward surveillance, privacy, and the relationship between security and freedom through a subplot involving a tech company's cooperation with the CIA's surveillance programme. This is a thematic concern of considerable contemporary relevance, but the film handles it with such superficiality and haste that it never generates real engagement.
Direction
Greengrass's direction is as kinetically accomplished as ever, with a command of the handheld visual style and a feel for the film's global canvas that gives the action sequences a physical immediacy and urgency the more conventionally staged action films of its era entirely lacked. The Las Vegas car chase is the film's most spectacular and least dramatically engaging action sequence, a demonstration of considerable technical ambition in service of almost no real dramatic purpose. John Powell's score maintains the franchise's established sonic identity with a propulsive energy that suits the kinetic register.
Cultural Reception
Jason Bourne was a modest commercial success but a critical disappointment on its release, with most reviewers acknowledging the kinetic accomplishment of Greengrass's direction while noting the film's failure to add anything of real dramatic value to the franchise. Its reputation has not improved in the years since, and it is now most frequently discussed alongside The Bourne Legacy as evidence of the franchise's post-trilogy creative decline.
Who Should Watch
Franchise completists will find it worth watching for Damon and Vikander's performances and for the kinetic accomplishment of Greengrass's direction. Those expecting the dramatic intelligence and emotional consequence of the Damon trilogy will find a considerably less satisfying experience.
Final Verdict: The franchise running on reputation, and not the franchise at its best. Greengrass's direction is as kinetically accomplished as ever, Damon's physical commitment remains impressive, and Vikander's Heather Lee is the film's most dramatically interesting new character. But the father subplot generates almost no dramatic interest, the villain is the franchise's least interesting major antagonist, and Jason Bourne ultimately delivers the franchise's established formula without the intelligence or emotional consequence that made the trilogy's finest entries so rewarding.
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