It¡¯s the Bourne revival: Matt Damon is Bourne again. After an unsuccessful attempt to transfer the franchise to Jeremy Renner in 2012¡¯s ¡°The Bourne Legacy,¡± Damon has returned to his most iconic role as the brainwashed CIA super-soldier. He¡¯s the real deal, the Sean Connery to Renner¡¯s George Lazenby, but do we really need another of these films?
When Damon first appeared in ¡°The Bourne Identity¡± in 2002, he seemed an unlikely action hero, and Doug Liman¡¯s direction never fully convinced. Things only clicked when Paul Greengrass took over for the 2004 sequel, ¡°The Bourne Supremacy,¡± and 2007¡¯s masterful ¡°The Bourne Ultimatum.¡± The director¡¯s immersive filmmaking style, full of handheld camerawork and rapid-fire editing, has since become the default setting for Hollywood action flicks.
Such techniques may be over-familiar at this point, but it¡¯s still a genuine pleasure to see them used so well. Greengrass is like an old master returning to show his imitators how it¡¯s meant to be done. There are a couple of extended action sequences in ¡°Jason Bourne¡± ¡ª a pursuit during a riot in Athens, a destructive car chase through the streets of Las Vegas ¡ª that are executed with such aplomb, they pretty much justify the admission price by themselves.
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