For a movie called ‘Jason Bourne,’ we get to know very little about Jason Bourne
If you were hoping for answers in the franchise's fifth film, prepare to be disappointed.
Audiences have known since 2002, the year Jason Bourne made his cinematic debut, that the Bourne action movie franchise has been driven entirely by what the brooding assassin doesn’t know. But with Jason Bourne, the latest installment that hits theaters Friday, it felt like we’d finally get some real answers.“This is the completion of this journey that started in The Bourne Identity,” Damon told Entertainment Weekly in February. “It feels like the conclusion of my identity journey. It goes deeper than Ultimatum, basically.”When the first trailer dropped in April, it seemed to only confirm that narrative. The trailer carries over a notable line from The Bourne Ultimatum, the third movie and the last time we saw Bourne: “I remember. I remember everything.”It’s easy to interpret the inclusion of that line in the new trailer as important. Could this be the movie when Bourne realizes — gasp — the whole truth?Throughout the entire buildup to today’s big film release, Damon and veteran writer/director Paul Greengrass have talked about their reasons for returning to the franchise. Greengrass told The New York Times that he found fertile ground in Bourne to explore political themes, and Damon told the publication, “When I saw [The Bourne Legacy’s] production offices, it hurt me in a way that surprised me.” They both said they had a desire to continue storytelling, that it was clear that there was a huge audience who wanted more of Matt Damon as Jason Bourne.
And so it felt significant when, during Super Bowl 50, Universal announced the title of the fifth film: Jason Bourne. The title hinted at a turning point in the series. The fact that Jason Bourne a) ditched the template, The Bourne Fill-in-the-Blank, hinted that the filmmakers would be marking a new era, and, b) implied that we were going to get to know a lot more about the guy Jason Bourne. This wasn’t going to be about some identity, or some supremacy, or some ultimatum. This wasn’t The Bourne Finale. And that’s important for a character defined by the fact that he knows pretty much zero things about his past.
But for a movie that seemed to promise a whole lot about the character Jason Bourne, it reveals very little about him.
(Here’s where you should probably stop reading if you’re wary of spoilers.)Bourne fans know that any breakthrough Bourne has ever had in terms of recalling bits and pieces of his past from his impaired memory come in the form of triggered flashbacks. Going into the theater, you’d probably expect this movie to be chock-full of them, considering it was supposed to be “the conclusion” of Bourne’s “identity journey,” according to Damon.The film has one flashback (that it returns to often) that sheds light on who Bourne’s father was and the role he played in Bourne’s enrollment in the CIA program that turned him into an assassin. The plot is mostly driven by this memory, but it’s way less about Bourne’s identity, and way more about the vengeance Bourne seeks from discovering that this was yet another secret the U.S. government kept from him. Also worth noting: Bourne never explicitly says as much—the audience has to interpret that from his actions. In fact, Bourne never says much at all in this film. Vanity Fairpointed out that Damon may have even made $1 million per line, considering how few lines he has. In conversation with The Guardian, Greengrass praised Damon’s non-verbal acting, adding that “there’s a tremendous amount of emotionality in the character.” Sure. But even as good as Damon’s performance is—and it is good—you only get so much from an actor’s ability to brood. It definitely doesn’t tell the audience anything new about Jason Bourne, the ever-suffering fighter the world has already known for a decade and a half. That’s very typical of a Greengrass Bourne film. Greengrass got a lot of praise for upping the intensity of the franchise when he came in to direct Supremacy and Ultimatum. (Doug Liman directed Identity). In Jason Bourne, Greengrass clearly prioritized the action sequences — the fighting, the car chase scenes (and man is there a car chase scene) — over scenes that propel the plot forward.
So by the end of Jason Bourne — the movie that had the chance to take a quantum leap in answering the question, “Who the actual hell is Jason Bourne?” — you realize this franchise still hasn’t made any significant progress in providing that answer.
In fact, this movie is not different from the other Bourne films in any compelling way.
If Hollywood can get behind anything, it’s a franchise: Star Wars, James Bond, Hunger Games, Fast and the Furious, literally anything from Marvel. If there’s widespread appeal and the potential for financial success behind a name, Hollywood wants a piece of it. But what Universal—and Damon and Greengrass—did here was insinuate that something new was coming, not more of the same Bourne. And maybe that was their downfall. The Bourne Identity sets the tone and the stakes for the whole series. And now Jason Bourne, just like Supremacy and Ultimatum, follows as an action-packed, financially-driven filler that exist for the sake of — dare I say it? — extending an already strong brand. You know Hollywood’s confident in that. But it remains to be seen if the audience, like Bourne, will forget why they signed up.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com