Jason Bourne Review

Jason Bourne was not one of my highly anticipated movies of the year. I saw The Bourne Ultimatum when it came out in theaters, but as a small kid it went right over my head. After that experience I always associated the movies as being overly complicated and impossible to understand. My brother is a huge fan of the series and was really looking forward to this new installment. The praise he kept giving the movies finally convinced me to sit down this past week and watch the whole trilogy. I am so thankful I did because the original three are by far some of the best action movies I've seen. The gritty and realistic fight and chase sequences mixed with such a layered story arch combine to create extremely engaging films. The other thing that I find so great about them is how well they use their settings to enhance and benefit the story. After the lackluster reviews for Jason Bourne started being released, I started to get worried. I thought that with Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon returning, the film could be nothing but good. After seeing it, I find a lot of the negative reviews for the film unwarranted. It isn't as good as the original three but that doesn't make it a bad film. I would say it is only slightly below the previous films quality wise. The first major action sequence in Athens is one of the best in the series and the final chase sequence in Las Vegas is also very impressive. The film perfectly captures the fast paced nature of the Bourne films and you are enthralled in the action from beginning to end. There are just a few things missing from this new Bourne film, weighing it down. The Silicon Valley/tech subplot seemed very unnecessary and felt like they were just trying to shoehorn in a reference to a major industry that has gained significant prominence since the early 2000's. Also, it didn't feel like there was any real need for Bourne to continue to explore his past. The things he found out about himself in this film almost felt like the cherry on top of a sundae(good but unnecessary). Lastly, in each other installment there was always an amazing hand to hand combat sequence somewhere in the middle of the plot. Here, there is a quick encounter with a hacker but it doesn't hold up to sequences such as the fist fight with the pen in The Bourne Identity. All the performances are solid and there is actually one aspect of the movie that I think worked better than in the others. That would be the assassin hired to kill Bourne(played by Vincent Cassel. In this one, they give him a back story and develop him much more than any other "asset" as they are called in the series. I highly recommend seeing this in theaters and would say most negative reviews are more feelings of disappointment that it isn't as good as the previous ones. I give Jason Bourne a B+.