There’s been quite a few Jason Bourne films now and if you’re just jumping into this film and it’s the first time you’ve heard of it, then you’ve missed a whole franchise entirely! But many would have heard of the Bourne films before and quite likely many have seen at least one of them. This film is the latest in the series, but is it one you should be watching or skipping at the cinema this week?
The story in Jason Bourne is that he’s been in hiding for some time, but resurfaces back into the world in order to investigate his past and find out all of the hidden truths he did not know before he joined the CIA. The plot is okay, but incredibly simplistic and seems to just end up being almost a revenge story, with Bourne taking down those who wronged him in the past. Where I find I had the most issue with the film, was not with the plot. But with the dialogue.
I don’t believe we got enough from Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) in this one, he’s supposed to be the main character but throughout the whole film he barely said anything at all, he had two or three conversations and spent the whole time running around, driving or shooting and didn’t say much at all. At times I felt lost with what was going on really. Tommy Lee Jones plays the films villain, CIA Director Robert Dewey, who occupies most of the dialogue moments and he’s great. But I felt we really needed more from the films hero here, it’s weird to say because usually I say we needed a better villain, but here, we really needed more from Jason Bourne.
The camera work is also something that I really disliked in this film. It’s got so much shaky cam in there, that at certain points I was starting to feel sick. A part of me thought that I was having too much soft drink or my popcorn wasn’t good, but no, it was the film that was making me feel sick. The camera shakes around so much and is constantly zooming in or out, that it was almost as if half the camera crew were filming this while simultaneously trying to balance on a unicycle.
The actors are all okay. I don’t know if I would say the standout of the film was Tommy Lee Jones or Alicia Vikander. Both were excellent and if I had to pick, I would have to say Alicia Vikander was the best of the lot. She’s really having quite a good run at the moment in the cinema and each time I see her in a new role, she gets better each and every time and in Jason Bourne she doesn’t disappoint. Tommy Lee Jones has always been a favourite of mine to watch and he’s entertaining in this film as well, he’s got the best lines and the best dialogue scenes. Matt Damon was as good as he could have been, but the script didn’t seem to give him much to work with, it would have been a great film if he had a larger more defining role here.
The action is pretty good, we get a lot of fights, gun scenes, car scenes, motorcycle scenes and a lot of running in there to keep you having fun during the film. The action is actually the highest point of this movie as it’s really very action heavy. However, it’s not exactly perfect. To me the shaky cam ruins a lot of the scenes, others may disagree and say it’s more immersive and realistic. It’s okay in moderation, but when almost every scene in the film is shaking, it can get a bit overwhelming.
Overall Jason Bourne is a fun action film that will certainly keep you entertained when it comes to the action components. But the story is fairly low standard, with not much going on to keep you interested for long as there’s very few dialogue heavy scenes. It’s more action over story really and that’s okay for people who want that, but I felt it really needed more. It’s also got way too much shaky cam in there as things were filmed by men on unicycles. But you will get a good mix of actors, Tommy Lee Jones and Alicia Vikander do very well and really were excellent in the film, but we could have benefited a bit more if we had something of more substance from Matt Damon, who didn’t get much great material to work with in Jason Bourne. It’s worth seeing if you’re a fan of the series, but if not, there’s always another action movie you could watch instead.
