Rating: C
Dir: Paul Greengrass
Star: Matt Damon, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Marton Csokas
As mentioned in my review of its predecessor, it isn’t a sequel we needed. However, after the success of Identity, this was probably inevitable. It’s a bit disappointing, truth be told. The script isn’t as strong, and Greengrass’s style here is too frenetic for me. We left Jason (Damon) and Marie living happily ever after, Bourne having threatened his employers with dire consequences if they do not leave him alone. Guess what? They do not. Someone decides it would be a good idea to frame Bourne for killing CIA agents in Berlin, an effort to cover up the misdirection of $20 million of agency money, and then try to kill him in Goa. What a silly billy!
You will be unsurprised to learn, it doesn’t work as planned. Though I was far from happy with the way they did Lola Marie in. She deserved better, and I can’t blame Jason for being a bit peeved. It’s not long before he is back from his sabbatical, looking to uncover the real perpetrator for CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy (Allen). Meanwhile the culprit tries to cover his – or her – tracks, with the help of Jarda (Csokas), a man who, like Bourne, is a former Treadstone assassin. By the time the credits roll, you’ll be forgiven for suffering from jet-lag, having gone through Goa, Naples, Munich, Berlin, Moscow and New York. But at least Jason learns his real name! So that’s nice.
While still getting my #JusticeForMarie T-shirt made, I was pondering the idiocy of the main plot. Did nobody remember the first movie? I seem to recall CIA Section Chief Ward Abbott (Cox) being present. In the annals of stupid ideas, likely to backfire, framing Jason Bourne to cover up your crimes probably ranks alongside land wars in Asia. All the mayhem and carnage which follows is… Well, really: what did you expect? It’s a contrast to the first movie, where it felt like everyone involved was smart. Here, it’s more like Bourne going up against the bronze medal winners in the Special Olympics for intelligence agencies. I occasionally felt Jason was going to pat Deputy Director Landy on the head, and give her a cookie.
Then there’s Greengrass’s approach. I’d forgotten just how manic some action films from the mid-two thousands could be. There is some good stuff on the action front, when the film calms down. There’s an impressive house explosion, for instance, and the final car chase through the streets of the Russian capital has more impact than most. However, you will have to get used to the fact you’re not going to get coherent sequences. Your brain will perpetually be three shots behind, going “Hang on… Wait, what was that? Can we just…” If the original now feels ahead of its time, and has improved with age, this feels more like a throwback to an unfortunate period in genre cinema, one which would be better forgotten.