- I’ve seen the original trilogy multiple times but not recently enough to remember every last important detail, and to that end I think that the film does a serviceable job picking up where the original films left off without making you try in vain to remember contextual details. They do a decent enough job providing context at the start that I’m not sure people who haven’t seen the original films* would be overly lost. All you really need to know is that the CIA have made a hash of trying to contain Bourne, which they show in several “Bourne is making us look incompetent again” scenes, and that now they’ve got to execute Order 66 in order to keep their myriad CIA secrets about their programs, etc.
*Although if you haven’t seen those films, why see this one?
- Truthfully, I was more interested in the “Bourne is making us look incompetent again” stuff than the “Poor Aaron Cross is a drug-controlled super drone” stuff.
- There’s a lot of jerkiness with Cross’ journey to the CIA’s science headquarters, as one minute he’s doing a nice bit of Arctic camping and the next he suddenly finds himself in possession of a plane or a car without any effort or consequences to acquiring said modes of transportation. I know he’s a well trained CIA operative who can accomplish this kind of thing easily due to his training, but it frequently felt like they dropped several transitional moments.
- I was really sad that Marta’s colleague went on a shooting rampage because I had enjoyed his nerdy excitement at getting his science project approved for further development. This guy: giving nerds a bad name.
- I’m not convinced you can peel the plastic off of the in-flight emergency procedures card to use as a new cover for a doctored passport.
- The final action sequence just about ruined any goodwill I have towards this movie. There’s this part in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me where Austin is trying to kill one of Dr Evil’s henchmen or something and, when the guy keeps coming back for more, he yells “Why won’t you die?!” I kept thinking that every time the LORAX-3 (or whatever they named the new-and-improved-Bourne agent) was on the receiving end of something that should have taken him out but resulted in him getting up and continuing on his MUST TERMINATE quest. Describing this whole sequence as comedic is charitable at best and between the undying henchman and some of the most ridiculous car/motorcycle chase moments I’ve seen in a while, it ends the film on a real sour note for me. It makes me think that Tony Gilroy’s inner fourteen year-old finally got out and got to direct the action film he always wanted to make as a young teenager. I need something more sophisticated than this.
- The closing lines from Marta about wishing she and Aaron were “lost” were just bad. I mean… yikes, that dialogue.
- There was always going to be a danger of this film existing solely to cash in on the success of the original trilogy, and unfortunately it doesn’t do anything to prove those accusations wrong.
Categories: 2 Stars