Alicia was overjoyed to land the role of cyber expert Heather Lee in “Jason Bourne” as she was such a huge fan of the original 2002 movie.
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Up until a narratively implausible and logistically ridiculous climactic motorcycle chase through Vegas that feels like a sop to the Fast & Furious crowd, Jason Bourne is an engrossing reimmersion in the violent and mysterious world of Matt Damon’s shadowy secret op. Though Damon has left the butt-kicking to others, the influence of the Bourne movies and their handheld intensity remains omnipresent, helping to shape the action sequences in everything from the latest James Bond films to “Captain America: The Winter Solider”.
There’s a touch of Greengrass’ wry, subversive political agenda to the way the movie unapologetically casts the Federal Bureau of Investigation as merciless villains, but their motivations are as mechanical as the filmmaking. Most recently in 2015, he also won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for The Martian. It nearly feels like a joke when a Central Intelligence Agency director played by Tommy Lee Jones alleges that Bourne is trying to help with a Wikileaks-like dump of top secret info, so clear does Damon make it that literally the only thing Jason Bourne wants is to be left alone.
It’s been almost a decade since Matt Damon appeared as amnesiac covert operative Jason Bourne on-screen, with the last entry in the series being the Damon-less offshoot The Bourne Legacy starring Jeremy Renner.
“He’s such a diverse actor”, she told Rappler.
“It is a popcorn franchise, but I love that it had references and issues that I felt like I read in the news”.
Alicia Vikander and Vincent Cassel are welcome additions to any film and Tommy Lee Jones is so wonderful as CIA Director Robert Dewey even the wonky camera work isn’t enough to disguise the quality of his performance.
That last element, in particular, has been used ad nauseam in an attempt to inject timeliness into the plots of countless films and TV shows ever since the last time Damon starred in a Bourne film.
The Verdict: It has been 9 years since The Bourne Ultimatum.
Die-hard fans of the franchise will probably still appreciate “Jason Bourne” exclusively for the fact that Damon’s back occupying the lead role.
The script for Jason Bourne was penned by Greengrass and Christopher Rouse, who served as an editor on The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. And while I did miss the presence of the charismatic Joan Allen, Vikander once again proves to have impressive star power. So in the end, you might as well just watch the slower paced, more informative recap that we were talking about before.
“We pretty quickly ruled out the sort of “Bourne finds happiness” route”, Greengrass cracked. “Much more likely, he would’ve been holed up off the grid, tormented by the guilt of what he had remembered and acting out the divided soul”. He shot the Athens sequence primarily on Tenerife in the Canary Islands; filming a fake riot in unrest-rocked Greece at the time would have been irresponsible, he says. The look at a group of mothers who rebel against their PTA overlords by indulging in whippets and downing too much Chablis, is eyeing a healthy $22 million launch. Producers seemingly couldn’t even think up another title.
“Jason Bourne” could not have been a strong entry in the Bourne series under any conditions.
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“It’s a turbulent world”, he points out. “So that shot is supposed to make that statement, that he’s living on the margins”.
