A body floats in the river, seemingly lifeless. The audience waits for a few seconds, anticipating a sign of life but with a slight trepidation that this could be it for their hero. Suddenly, legs and arms jerk into life, Jason Bourne swims away injured but alive – cue Moby.
And that seemed to be it for the cinematic journey of Jason Bourne, the role that is arguably more identifiable with Matt Damon than any other. and it seems remarkable to think that 9 years have passed since The Bourne Ultimatum seemed to round out a trilogy that had established Damon as a leading action hero. With the directorial style of Jonathan Greengrass and stand out action sequences the trilogy had redefined what a modern day action/thriller movie should be looking for in terms of a realistic, gritty approach and served as a catalyst for a new approach for the James Bond franchise, which is no mean feat.
It’s to Damon and Greengrass’ credit that they have waited for a story to be delivered that builds on what has gone before, and with this fifth instalment of the Bourne series (or fourth if you discount The Bourne Legacy, on which hopes for a spin off series of films stalled in 2012) one of the biggest questions to answer was where we would find Bourne nearly a decade later and what shape he would be in physically and mentally. The answer is provided from the off, with Bourne competing in illegal bare knuckle fights for money in eastern Europe, a far cry from his past with the CIA and that world, unlike his former colleague and hinted past romantic interest Nicky Parsons, who ill advisedly hacks into the CIA computers to retrieve files about the Blackbriar and Treadstone amongst other black ops programmes. This action comes to the attention of Heather Lee, the head of the cyber ops team at the CIA who introduces a malware programme into the download of the files that will activate when the information is accessed, before tracing the location of the security breach and identifying Parsons as the likely owner of the equipment used to carry out the hack. Under the watchful glare of CIA Director Robert Dewey, a grizzled Tommy Lee Jones, a mission is launched to locate Parsons and, when he is spotted in her company, Jason Bourne, bringing him back into the fray against the US government which he had seemingly managed to leave behind for near a decade.
Whereas previous instalments centred on Bourne’s battle to recover his lost original identity and memories of his past, the fifth film is more of a battle for Bourne’s soul and state of mind. The question is asked through the story of what else there is in his past to discover and remember, how it will affect him and whether it is possible for Bourne to ever find peace or any kind of normal existence or definitive end to his past and clashes with the CIA or if he can find a future in the world. Questions were posed previously about government institutions, the power they wield, the technology and knowledge they can use and acquire and what can potentially happen when one person’s ego threatens to run amok or personal agendas are followed for their own gain and that theme is present again – there is a newer element brought in concerning the fears around the cost and implication of potentially truly private internet access and personal online privacy through the presence of Riz Ahmed’s Aaron Kalloor, the CEO of social media enterprise Deep Dream. More tied into the machinations of the CIA and it’s attempts to deal with cyber crime in the modern age, it does raise some debatable points and questions about the state of the world and implication of future cyber and online tech albeit more as a side issue than a main narrative thread, and not in the same depth as say Person Of Interest has been able to delve into.
That Damon easily slips back into the persona of Jason Bourne is no surprise, indeed it would be a major surprise if the intensity and charismatic edge that he instilled in previous performances had suddenly gone, as he ably demonstrates the ability to switch from heroic action figure to an emotionally wounded figure trying to find out his place in the world. There is something of a change with the approach to the main threat to Bourne and anyone near him this time round, whereas previously most of the assets sent to dispose of Bourne were given little in terms of backstory or emotional reason to be successful in their mission, Vincent Cassel’s unnamed asset has a very personal grudge with the titular hero. Not forgetting to deal with the potential ramifications of events at the end of The Bourne Ultimatum, Cassel’s assassin was a victim of the consequences of Bourne’s actions, with the public exposé of the Blackbriar programme leading to his capture and torture before finding his way back into a CIA assassin programme. Whilst Cassel isn’t an exact physical match for Bourne he is more than a match for him in terms of a presence and carries with him a real sense of threat and purpose, yet with the sense that his personal grudge might cloud his judgement, without going down the road that other action films or series might do and making him seem like a near indestructible foe.
In terms of the other main series newcomers, Alicia Vikander brings a sense of drive and ambition to her role as Heather Lee, a character that is not afraid to push for more responsibility or to push herself more centrally into the fray. Although she might lack the steely nerved edge that Joan Allen brought to her portrayal of Pamela Landy she does carry a determination and confidence in her own judgement and actions to hold her own against other colleague and Tommy Lee Jones’ head of CIA who brings his usual dependability to the role and makes more of an impression than the CIA higher ups in The Bourne Legacy were able to do.
There wasn’t any doubt that the direction and look of the film would be on a par with the other Damon/Greengrass collaborations in the series, the director’s trademark constantly moving camera on show here again, and that the film once again delivers the kind of hand clenching, fast moving action that became a standout element of the original trilogy, ore notably in the later Supremacy and Ultimatum instalments. The early motorbike sequence calls back to previous chase sequences but also brings back memories of the intense car chase from Identity, still a standout sequence years on. Arguably the action that there is doesn’t beat or perhaps quite equal what we’ve seen before in some parts, certainly there isn’t quite anything to match the spectacular camera following Bourne through a window jump from Ultimatum, and with just one asset to really threaten Bourne there isn’t quite the larger threat on hand that was always lurking wherever Bourne’s journeys took him. One plot point that does feel like a mis-step is an unnecessarily contrived call back to the past that none of the characters involved really needed in terms of their story or the story overall and almost feels like Greengrass and co writer Christopher Rouse felt the need to put into the film just to add further emotional weight which wasn’t really needed.
Taken as a standalone effort Jason Bourne is certainly more of a standout action-thriller film than many contemporaries, and certainly bests all but Casino Royale of the Bond films that have appeared in the interim period between Ultimatum and this latest story, but where it stands in the series as a whole will be open to more debate as to whetherr it stands alongside or below Supremacy or Ultimatum. At the very least it’s a worthy entry to the series and fans can at least breath a sigh of relief that it is far from a phoned in, done for the sake of the cash effort than some feared it would be.
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