Director Paul Greengrass and actor Matt Damon have teamed up once more for spy thriller Jason Bourne, but do they live up to expectations?
The film is the fifth in the Bourne series and the direct sequel to 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum (The Bourne Legacy - the fourth film released in 2012 - did not feature Damon nor the character Jason Bourne, but instead focused onblack ops agent Aaron Cross, played by Jeremy Renner).
This time, Damon reprises his role as the amnesiac former CIA assassin, who is now living incognito as a bare-knuckle fighter. However, when old ally Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) tracks him down with revelations that could be "bigger than Ed Snowden", Bourne is drawn into a global conspiracy involving social media encryption, a dastardly CIA chief (Tommy Lee Jones) and one last tragic secret from his past.
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This franchise refresher "bristles with visceral excitement", says the Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy. He calls it "an engrossing reimmersion in the violent and mysterious world of Matt Damon's shadowy secret op".
Technically and logistically, Greengrass delivers, adds the critic: "There's no one better when it comes to staging complex, chaotic action amid the real life of big cities."
But there's also a disappointing realisation, McCarthy concludes: "No matter how much time we've spent with them, the characters remain utterly one-dimensional."
Jimi Famurewa at Empire argues that Damon and Greengrass have given the espionage genre "another energising smack round the chops" and that Jason Bourne is a "bold and eerily topical masterpiece of stuntcraft and bruising action".
OK, this film "basically amounts to a trio of action set-pieces elegantly strung together," he admits: "But who really cares when they’re this impressive?"
Jason Bourne is back in a "tough" fifth outing and "this time it's personal", says Peter Debruge in Variety. In this "explosive reunion", Greengrass and Damon hold us in their thrall with a "hyper-paranoid conspiracy thriller".
In many ways, he adds, "it's the most unsettling movie in the series" because it points to a vast conspiracy directed at the American people, skilfully rendered with hi-tech visual trickery and a tense techno score. The Las Vegas ending tips into silliness but nevertheless, "this sequel offers closure even as it entices us with the possibility of Bourne's return".
They have certainly "upped the tech and chucked in references to Snowden", says Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. But it is when Bourne is "whacking baddies" and "unleashing testosterone on well-dressed women" that he "remains most persuasive".
This is a "fun but forgettable revamp", continues Bradshaw. "Perhaps it really is time for Jason to hang up his Glock and give someone else a chance", he says - maybe co-star Alicia Vikander deserves a go at being an action heroine?
