"Jason Bourne" (2016)

I can’t name another franchise where the sequel is a reboot using the same actor. Not technically, but...it is a reboot.

 So far…people have mentioned James Bond movies. Which is actually a good suggestion, except they are stand alone stories (supposedly). It would have to be that the original character is also the character in the franchise, while re-doing the original storyline. While…technically this new Bourne movie isn’t that, it does have Matt Damon sort of rebooting Bourne with another new C.I.A. world.

In this movie, Bourne has been missing in action. What brings him out of hiding is an operative he knew, a whistleblower sort of speak, played by Julia Stiles. The information leads Bourne to ditch the mud and get back into the spy vs. spy scenario. Lots have happen since his departure. Cyber espionage is the new thing (Snowden and WikiLeaks and so forth). They are much more dangerous to national security than physical terrorist threats, since it unleashes covert operators. Now Bourne is in the thick of it. Always has been. In fact, his backstory is that he was recruited or he volunteered. For what reason is the core of his revenge angle. However what really is at the heart of the discovery is a relapse of memory that makes him want to discover the cause of his own father’s murder.

This is a storyline that had yet to be explored, and I think quite strange now that you consider how it has been this long to get to it. But it’s a rebirth of sorts. New evil politicians only breed worse politicians who play too many hands. Look, this movie is a visceral pleasure. Metal on metal and punches traded, it’s not meant to delve too deeply on our lack of security. Nor the recruitment of the private sector software developers who’ve cracked the code of our privacy.

I use to believe our privacy deserves no quarter, since terrorist are in the shadows constantly and need to be uncovered by whatever means necessary. But the implication is that privacy in the hands of some powers that be, is a corruptible empowerment that could be worse than the solution to global terrorism. After all, your neighbor who knows your schedule is much more dangerous than the Middle Easterner who doesn’t give a shit about you. “Jason Bourne” treads through the forgetful spy genre again…tired, beaten and somewhat slowly becoming a indestructible God. If they maybe scale back on the jarring car crashes, perhaps we get a better sense of the realism. As it is now…we’re close to being a comic book. But if that doesn’t bother you, it’s a fun smash and trash movie. Director Paul Greengrass has returned to what he knows best, and not a bad thing to be.