I really wanted to enjoy this but man, what a stinkbomb. As much as I enjoyed Matt Damon's Jason Bourne in the first three, it should have ended there. If you're a fan of the Jason Bourne movies and haven't made it to this one yet, do yourself a huge favor and stop. So. Many. Things. WRONG. about this steaming turd.
The lunacy begins with a supposed-to-be high-ranking CIA official (granted, she's "just" the Director of Cybersecurity Operations) who looks like she's not even old enough to be a college graduate. I suppose they could have written some freak twist into the story about her being some sort of genius ( a la "Spenser" on Criminal Minds ) but even that would have been a ridiculous stretch. They didn't even try that, however; they just threw a 20-year old kid with her hair piled on her head (I suppose that was some feeble attempt to make her look "older", "more mature", perhaps? It didn't work...) into the mix and said, "Here. You're supposed to be the Director of CyberSecurity Operations for the CIA." and she's supposed to make that work. She didn't. As if that weren't silly enough, she tries to adopt this "hard-as-nails" persona that worked marvelously for Joan Allen (as "Pamela Landy") in The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum . Alicia Vikander, as "Heather Lee", is barely past sucking her thumb but she's supposed to be this bad mamba jamba who's ready to take on Jason Bourne solo. She didn't make that work either. In fact, she really did absolutely NOTHING for this movie; nothing she tried came across as genuine or believable, including the accent that I never could tell what it was: was she British with an excellent American English accent, or American with a bad British accent? Honestly, she kept fumbling between both so it was impossible to tell whether she was supposed to be British or American. Either way, she failed miserably.
Tommy Lee Jones, as per his usual charming self, was a maestro. I love seeing in him almost anything, and he certainly didn't fail here. He played his part to the hilt and just oozed the sliminess that his character was so obviously supposed to ooze. Loved his character, loved the Jason Bourne character, loved the Nicky Parsons (played by the always-charming Julia Stiles) character for the short time she was in this film. No one else - including the Aaron Kalloor blatant ripoff of Mark Zuckerberg character, played by Riz Ahmed - was even memorable. Seriously. There was absolutely no depth to these characters...sadly, not even Jason Bourne in this one. Damon's character consistently waffled between cold-blooded killer and sad puppy, but he couldn't pull off the sad puppy here like he did in the original. By the time you arrive at Jason Bourne you're already familiar with his story so it's difficult to continue feeling sorry for the poor guy whose identity was taken from him. Especially when he narrates the opening credits, "I remember now. I remember everything."
If the acting weren't atrocious enough (and it was), this entire film carried almost a cartoonish effect. The non-stop "action" was so ridiculously unbelievable that it was difficult...heck, nearly impossible...to get into even as an "action flick". I absolutely love a good action movie, and this one had it...in excess. I've never seen vehicles that we so utterly indestructible, but there you have it, ladies and germs. You can plow through bumper-to-bumper night-life traffic on the Las Vegas strip if you're driving a SWAT van...or a Dodge Charger. Never even flatten a tire.
Everything - EVERYTHING - that was good in the first three (notice I didn't say "first four" because that other thing doesn't count) Bourne movies was completely wrong here. Even the ending was a tired rehash.
Don't watch this. Just watch the first three movies - The Bourne Identity , The Bourne Supremacy , and The Bourne Ultimatum in that order - and leave the others alone. Especially this one.
Review by ShubesBlockedParent2023-08-19T02:42:09Z
I really wanted to enjoy this but man, what a stinkbomb. As much as I enjoyed Matt Damon's Jason Bourne in the first three, it should have ended there. If you're a fan of the Jason Bourne movies and haven't made it to this one yet, do yourself a huge favor and stop. So. Many. Things. WRONG. about this steaming turd.
The lunacy begins with a supposed-to-be high-ranking CIA official (granted, she's "just" the Director of Cybersecurity Operations) who looks like she's not even old enough to be a college graduate. I suppose they could have written some freak twist into the story about her being some sort of genius ( a la "Spenser" on Criminal Minds ) but even that would have been a ridiculous stretch. They didn't even try that, however; they just threw a 20-year old kid with her hair piled on her head (I suppose that was some feeble attempt to make her look "older", "more mature", perhaps? It didn't work...) into the mix and said, "Here. You're supposed to be the Director of CyberSecurity Operations for the CIA." and she's supposed to make that work. She didn't. As if that weren't silly enough, she tries to adopt this "hard-as-nails" persona that worked marvelously for Joan Allen (as "Pamela Landy") in The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum . Alicia Vikander, as "Heather Lee", is barely past sucking her thumb but she's supposed to be this bad mamba jamba who's ready to take on Jason Bourne solo. She didn't make that work either. In fact, she really did absolutely NOTHING for this movie; nothing she tried came across as genuine or believable, including the accent that I never could tell what it was: was she British with an excellent American English accent, or American with a bad British accent? Honestly, she kept fumbling between both so it was impossible to tell whether she was supposed to be British or American. Either way, she failed miserably.
Tommy Lee Jones, as per his usual charming self, was a maestro. I love seeing in him almost anything, and he certainly didn't fail here. He played his part to the hilt and just oozed the sliminess that his character was so obviously supposed to ooze. Loved his character, loved the Jason Bourne character, loved the Nicky Parsons (played by the always-charming Julia Stiles) character for the short time she was in this film. No one else - including the Aaron Kalloor blatant ripoff of Mark Zuckerberg character, played by Riz Ahmed - was even memorable. Seriously. There was absolutely no depth to these characters...sadly, not even Jason Bourne in this one. Damon's character consistently waffled between cold-blooded killer and sad puppy, but he couldn't pull off the sad puppy here like he did in the original. By the time you arrive at Jason Bourne you're already familiar with his story so it's difficult to continue feeling sorry for the poor guy whose identity was taken from him. Especially when he narrates the opening credits, "I remember now. I remember everything."
If the acting weren't atrocious enough (and it was), this entire film carried almost a cartoonish effect. The non-stop "action" was so ridiculously unbelievable that it was difficult...heck, nearly impossible...to get into even as an "action flick". I absolutely love a good action movie, and this one had it...in excess. I've never seen vehicles that we so utterly indestructible, but there you have it, ladies and germs. You can plow through bumper-to-bumper night-life traffic on the Las Vegas strip if you're driving a SWAT van...or a Dodge Charger. Never even flatten a tire.
Everything - EVERYTHING - that was good in the first three (notice I didn't say "first four" because that other thing doesn't count) Bourne movies was completely wrong here. Even the ending was a tired rehash.
Don't watch this. Just watch the first three movies - The Bourne Identity , The Bourne Supremacy , and The Bourne Ultimatum in that order - and leave the others alone. Especially this one.
Putrid.