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Jason Bourne (2016), PG-13, ★★★

Matt Damon is Jason Bourne...again.
Remember when the Matt Damon that starred in Kevin Smith movies and in drama that present as a likable kid or a jerk was cast in an action film back in 2000? We were all wondering if he'd be the right fit for an action vehicle to take control of the situation amongst espionage, fight sequences and car chases. Well, he has made three of the Bourne films and all three of them had a distinct certain quality that people will be enamored by and be blown away. The whole trilogy follows the story as to why he is an amnesiac and also why he is a perfect specimen to fight against bad guys and solve some cases. The director, Paul Greengrass, and Damon re-team for a fourth adventure and the result is: we've seen it before. It is not necessarily a bad thing because it is a competent action film. The story was ultimately not as interesting as I thought.

The movie recaps of David Webb (Matt Damon) when he first joined Treadstone, training to become an assassin and become a new identity, his alias being Jason Bourne. After exposing Blackbriar, he is hiding in Greece engaging some combat with men. Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), his former Treadstone contact, uploads a virus onto the CIA's mainframe servers. At CIA Headquarters, Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander), the head of the Cyber Ops division, spots the activity as it contains classified files starting with the Treadstone programs. Nicky burns the evidence.

Heather reports this and discusses the situation with CIA director, Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) and they discover that it involves Bourne. Dewey fears that Bourne could ruin the latest program, Ironhand, so he sends an assassin called The Asset (Black Swan's Vincent Cassel). The Asset holds a grudge towards Bourne for leaving the program. Later, we see a convention going on in which guest speaker and founder, Aaron Kalloor (Riz Ahmed) has created Deep Dream, a social media program intended to give customers the utmost respect for their privacy. However, Aaron is secretly with Dewey on this project to help Deep Dream merge with Ironhand for surveillance programming.

Tommy Lee Jones and Alicia Vikander.
I liked more of the material from the movie than disliking it. But, the one problem is that I disliked some elements of the film because the trilogy is nearly as perfect as it can get. I felt that the execution was a bit sloppy as to why Jason Bourne came back out of hiding to retrieve some new information about his own life. It plays like an episode of 24 in which we mostly know who he is after the season finale but we ask ourselves whether or not the writers and the director, Paul Greengrass, has something new to offer us. There is a complicated side plot regarding a social media program that felt like another movie and for some reason, I thought it was mostly filler. The best aspect of the movie is basically Bourne trying to track more information about who he is and his family than the social media/Ironhand stuff.

Nevertheless, Matt Damon is still compelling as Jason Bourne not having many lines as we observe his actions and his mannerisms towards certain stuff like the world wide web. It seems that the Bourne characters really isolates from the tech-savvy world. Julia Stiles has a brief appearance in which she is good. The new additions, Tommy Lee Jones and Alicia Vikander, are terrific as they are both professional but yet a bit insecure in their personalities. And, Vincent Cassel as the cold assassin is ruthless and his fight scene with him and Damon towards the end of the film is awesome.

Director Paul Greengrass has a knack for quick-cut and shaky-cam action sequences. Even though I praised most of that before, I felt the experience this time to be a bit dizzying because it felt like a rollercoaster that pauses for a minute and then you take off and not stopping for 20 minutes. The action sequences are still spectacular even with the Las Vegas scenes seeming to be a bit more Fast-and-Furious style but I did not care because there is not a lot of CGI involved. However, Jason Bourne is still hurt by its uneven pacing in the first half and a ludicrous side plot. But, all in all, it does not derail the total end result. I was a bit disappointed that I did not get a great action film but I was not as bummed because it was still a solid attempt.

***


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