Jason Bourne (12A.)
Directed by Paul Greengrass.
Starring Matt Damon, Alicia Vikander, Julia Stiles, Tommy Lee Jones, Riz Ahmed and Vincent Cassel. 123 mins.
In Team America, Matt Damon was portrayed as a shallow imbecile who could only say his own name. Now, in an example perhaps of Self Fulfilling Parody, he has been persuaded to return to his defining role – a virtually mute killing machine with no real personality to speak of – and has been given just 25 lines to speak. Not even very elaborate lines either – no tricky adjectives or adverbs to deal with.
As a killer he's multi faceted but as a human being he's a blunt object. (The idea that he was ever an influence on James Bond now seems insulting.) In Jason ReBourne he is searching back through his family history trying to find out if there is anything to him beyond the lazy pun of his creation, the Bourne Identity.
The film reunites him with Greengrass, director of the second and third parts, who's back with his fast cutting, shaky cam and intense close ups. By the time that he made Ultimatum the style had become so hyped up that it was the cinematic equivalent of a Find The Lady trick; you may have thought you were looking at a car chase or a shoot out but it was gone before you could be sure. He's calmed down a bit but even now it's rare for a shot to last more than three to five seconds. Greengrass is like a liberal intelligentsia version of Michael Bay, when he does it he's adapting Eisenstein; when Bay does it he's copying Coke ads.
It works though, it gives you the feel of urgency and that this is dealing with matters of substance. Just as in the previous instalment, the film drops in on five countries in the first quarter of an hour. There are Greek anti government riots, Icelandic hacker communities and numerous terse mentions of Snowden to show us that the film has got the global pulse. The movie is about the battle for Bourne's soul: whether he should use the information he knows to destroy the CIA, or whether his patriotic instincts will take over and he will go back to doing the government's dirty work.
Bourne is an All American, man on the street, bleeding heart liberal, gun nut. His great appeal is that his films play out all our modern anxieties about the agencies that govern us, the outside forces that threaten us, and who we should be more scared of. That, and there is a cracking Vegas car chase; and this time you can actually see what is happening.
Directed by Paul Greengrass.
Starring Matt Damon, Alicia Vikander, Julia Stiles, Tommy Lee Jones, Riz Ahmed and Vincent Cassel. 123 mins.
In Team America, Matt Damon was portrayed as a shallow imbecile who could only say his own name. Now, in an example perhaps of Self Fulfilling Parody, he has been persuaded to return to his defining role – a virtually mute killing machine with no real personality to speak of – and has been given just 25 lines to speak. Not even very elaborate lines either – no tricky adjectives or adverbs to deal with.
As a killer he's multi faceted but as a human being he's a blunt object. (The idea that he was ever an influence on James Bond now seems insulting.) In Jason ReBourne he is searching back through his family history trying to find out if there is anything to him beyond the lazy pun of his creation, the Bourne Identity.
The film reunites him with Greengrass, director of the second and third parts, who's back with his fast cutting, shaky cam and intense close ups. By the time that he made Ultimatum the style had become so hyped up that it was the cinematic equivalent of a Find The Lady trick; you may have thought you were looking at a car chase or a shoot out but it was gone before you could be sure. He's calmed down a bit but even now it's rare for a shot to last more than three to five seconds. Greengrass is like a liberal intelligentsia version of Michael Bay, when he does it he's adapting Eisenstein; when Bay does it he's copying Coke ads.
It works though, it gives you the feel of urgency and that this is dealing with matters of substance. Just as in the previous instalment, the film drops in on five countries in the first quarter of an hour. There are Greek anti government riots, Icelandic hacker communities and numerous terse mentions of Snowden to show us that the film has got the global pulse. The movie is about the battle for Bourne's soul: whether he should use the information he knows to destroy the CIA, or whether his patriotic instincts will take over and he will go back to doing the government's dirty work.
Bourne is an All American, man on the street, bleeding heart liberal, gun nut. His great appeal is that his films play out all our modern anxieties about the agencies that govern us, the outside forces that threaten us, and who we should be more scared of. That, and there is a cracking Vegas car chase; and this time you can actually see what is happening.
