Jason Bourne Review

Story: The CIA's most dangerous operative is drawn back out of the shadows to uncover more explosive truths about his past.

It's been 10 years since Matt Damon last played the amnesiatic spy Jason Bourne, now he's back with director Paul Greengrass as they bring back our favourite action hero. Times have changed  and now black-ops and government agencies have taken the war on terror online as what is known as cyber-warfare.

The new film brings into the fold a new set of actors and characters. Alicia Vikander plays the role of CIA head of cyber ops division Heather Lee.  She is fantastic in the role and brings great dimension to the character. I found her very believable in the role and felt she was excellent going toe to toe with both Matt Damon, Tommy Lee Jones and Vincent Cassel. Vincent plays the role of a Blackbriar asset who holds a grudge against Bourne for the aftermath following the events of Ultimatum. Vincent is terrific in the role and is a step up from the previous antagonist from Legacy. Vincent's asset has more of an arc and is more of a well rounded character. Tommy plays CIA director Robert Dewey and as always he nails the part. Following in the line of excellent actors from Chris Cooper and Joan Allen, to David Strathairn and Edward Norton he gives a resounding performance and he is a pure joy to watch. His and Vincent's characters hold secrets to Bourne's past and is a nice change having the asset and government agent have past connections.

The cast is excellent, the only complaint I have is the story needs to be more tightly knit. I just found that too much was going on and was a little hard to follow. A second viewing might be beneficial.

The actor from Nightcrawler, Riz Ahmed plays the head of social media enterprise that CIA Robert Dewey helped get started. It's nice to see Riz have a decent role in a summer action blockbuster. He plays one of the side characters that was a bit breezed over. Also, Julia Stiles returns as Nicky Parsons who informs Bourne about new information about his past connections to Treadstone. Both Riz and Julia are excellent in their parts and Julia gives a performance that adds new layers to her character.

Another great return is John Powell, composer of the first three movies, who this time teams up with composer David Buckley (The Good Wife). It's excellent to hear the old themes again.

The fifth instalment in this action franchise, Jason Bourne, holds up pretty well with a story that might be a little too complicated to follow at first but has a terrific cast and a great return by Matt Damon, John Powell and Paul Greengrass. With a franchise still full of more stories to tell, this series is still going strong. Next, The Cross Conspiracy? The Bourne Betrayal?

Rating: B+