Jason Bourne is back in … JASON BOURNE

Otherwise, it’s probably best for everyone involved if this is when a battered and bruised Jason Bourne finally walks slowly into the sunset.

Damon is outstanding as the tightly wound, perpetually restless and conflicted Jason Bourne, who is practically a superhero when it comes to fighting, but is utterly lost the rest of the time. His last film in the franchise, “The Bourne Ultimatum”, launched domestically with $69.3 million in 2007.

Like director Paul Greenglass said, “Many people thought we wouldn’t come back but we are back”.

The CIA has been tracking Nicky, and now they’re back on Bourne, this time led by Director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) and an ambitious newcomer named Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander). But 45 years later, that same scenario applies to Jason Bourne, an idea-starved vestigial tail on the Bourne trilogy that wrapped up nicely nine years ago. Rather than following the book series by titling the fifth installment “The Bourne Betrayal” (none of the movie plots have ever followed the novels), instead we get the generically-named ‘Jason Bourne’. Jason Bourne tries to up the action quotient as well, but it just serves to make this appear more generic and less like the logical next step in the franchise.

Lee Jones is magnificent as the old CIA dinosaur, though Vikander seems a little out of her depth as the more modern-thinking Lee, who represents the future of the agency.

Now fully recovered from the amnesia which saw him disappear “off the grid” after swimming away in New York’s East River at the end of Ultimatum, he gets tracked down by old ally Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) after spending his guilt-wrecked days prize-fighting in Greece.

“Matt Damon has always had the talent to build a bright career for himself with or without the Bourne franchise, but there’s also no doubting that those films expanded his star status and his appeal to a variety of audiences”, said Shawn Robbins, senior analyst at Boxoffice.com.

Like the previous films, “Jason Bourne” skips from country to country. First, the team ranked all 56 Damon films, then compared his track record to other top leading men in Hollywood. The discussions and meetings being held feel like they are straight out of the headlines and the film solidly shows Riz Ahmed’s uneasiness with how his electronics are being utilised.

“As the character that catapulted the star into the box office stratosphere, the “Bourne” brand remains a strong and compelling attraction to moviegoers looking for an action movie with brains as well as brawn at the summer box office”, he added.

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Well, that and Matt Damon.