In short: Jason Bourne (2016)

Well, this is certainly an improvement over the fourth, Bourne-less, Bourne movie. However, it doesn’t reach the heights of the original trilogy of films (particularly not of the last two films). In part, this is certainly because this one is coasting on established virtues where the original films were a shot in the arm of an ailing film genre; others in blockbuster land have taken the best the original Bourne films have to offer and expanded on it, where this doesn’t really take anything much further.

Paul Greengrass’s film is still a more than decent big budget spy thriller, with dependable performances by Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Wallace and particularly Alicia Vikander, with more than a few fine action sequences and expertly created forward momentum.

I’m not particularly happy with the film’s somewhat limp ending – you don’t leave a plot element like “the biggest social networking platform is spying for the CIA” unresolved in the way the film does. This particular part might have to do with Jason Bourne’s general dithering about the rights and wrongs of the surveillance state that leaves the impression of a film that is too cowardly to tread on anyone’s toes politically, rather than of a film that’s actually trying to think through the ethics of something and not quite coming to a conclusion. It’s a very mainstream big budget film, after all, and political courage is something this part of the movie business generally lacks. I should probably be thankful it doesn’t go the all out flag waving route, but we do live in a world where films featuring a guy actually dressing up in said flag aren’t doing that either (perfectly keeping with what said character is actually about) – and are arguably more complex.


Anyway, while this wasn’t exactly the Bourne film I have dreamed of, and most certainly isn’t one the world strictly needed, it’s an entertaining enough film.

Three Films Make A Post: The Pounding of the Afterbrain Signals Vengeance and Death!

Hot Fuzz (2007): I'm not sure why I waited so long with watching this (except for a certain dislike for comedies and parody and everything that comes with it). Turns out Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg can do with cop movies and action movies what they already did with the zombie film and the romantic comedy: make the sort of genre parody that is based on love for and understanding of the genre it parodies and works also quite nicely as part of that genre (or rather these genres). And nodding in the direction of The Wicker Man is a great thing for a film to do.

Although I really think they should have sealed the blatant homoeroticism between Simon Pegg and Nick Frost with at least an on-screen kiss.

 

The Crazies (2010): So this is what happens when you take one of George A. Romero's minor (yet still worthwhile) films of the 70s, and "remake" it by removing its politics, the personal horror lying at the core of its miniature apocalypse and the way it admits complexity by showing the usually faceless government minions as people in way over their heads, and go on to replace it all through dull competence.

What happens then is a viral apocalypse that lacks passion.

 

Green Zone (2010): This is a strange one. On one hand, director Paul Greengrass puts a lot of energy into admitting complexity (of morals, of politics) into his thriller about the last US invasion of Iraq, but on the other hand uses such an unbelievably naive, milquetoast protagonist (Matt Damon) to explore them that it becomes difficult to reconcile this character with the rest of the film he is appearing in. With a bit more daring and less believe in a few of America's favourite ideological lies (for example shown by ending the movie with Damon dying and not making an impact on anything) this would be a much more honest film. As it stands, Green Zone is certainly an effective espionage film (in the broader meaning of the term), but might disappoint viewers expecting what it at first seems to promise.

 

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