Jason Bourne

First Hit:  Unnecessary shaky camera work got in the way of a sub-standard story about Jason Bourne.

I don’t mind shaky camera work when it adds to the excitement of a scene in a film. In some films it works really well (think “Breaking the Waves”). It can also be helpful when the audience is following someone who is running and other scenes like this. The technique becomes a mindless technique and distraction when unnecessarily used to create excitement.

The story needs to be exciting first and foremost. Paul Greengrass used a ton of unnecessary shaky camera work in this film. Examples abound, like when a sniper is setting up to shoot, the camera needed to be as still and calm as the in-breath and out-breath of a sniper making a clean shot. Internal and external landscape shots of an area so that the audience knows the the lay of the land instead of haphazard shots creating confusion for the audience.  

When I have the thought "why can’t the camera stop shaking", it is a distraction. The director doesn't want the audience thinking about why they cannot tell what is happening on the screen.

Greengrass may have used this technique because the story is less intriguing than the previous Bourne films (The Bourne Identity – 2002, The Bourne Supremacy – 2004, The Bourne Ultimatum – 2007, and The Bourne Legacy – 2012). The first three captured my attention mostly because the story was great, had passion, intrigue, and suspense. In the 2012 version, Matt Damon wasn’t playing Jason Bourne directly and therefore the film lacked the amazingness he brings to this franchise.

This version had Matt Damon back as Jason Bourne seeking to piece together his father’s death and involvement in Blackbriar while attempting to settle his own personal struggles of identity.

As an overall storyline it wasn’t the best, yet it did have a side story about today’s issue of using technology to track people and their actions. Here, the company creating software that can do this is lead by Aaron Kallor (Riz Ahmed). But the story and film are about Bourne and Damon is such a strong actor that he brings this character to life like no one else can. He makes Bourne complex, charming, physically capable, and chivalrous, or as much as a undercover CIA agent can be chivalrous.

The villain is still the agency as they believe he knows too much and will continue to expose their illegal covert programs. It was wonderful to see Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), his previous supporting agency agent, helping Jason to get additional information helping him to piece together the puzzle.

The film showing the kind of technology available to the CIA was very good and interesting. The new CIA Director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones), as always, wants Jason eliminated. He uses an Asset (Vincent Cassel) to do the dirty work and like, Bourne he’s relentless.

Another bright spot was CIA Agent Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander) who takes on the previous Pam Landy (Joan Allen) spot as head of the task force to bring Bourne in (or take him out). Lee, like Landy, connects with Bourne as a person and shows a level of compassion for his plight. One last note, I thought the car chase through downtown Las Vegas overdone and unnecessarily unrealistic.

Damon is Jason Bourne. In my eyes he’s the only guy who can pull off the character Jason Bourne because he created him. As usual, I loved his performance. Jones was OK as the crusty, old school, CIA Director but felt he was too crusty to run an agency that is filled with new progressive technology. Vikander was perfect for the part. Her strong, aggressive, and young female portrayal of a top CIA Agent in this world of progressive electronics was perfect. She was the opposite of Jones. Stiles was great to see again and her role really helped tie together Bourne and the new players in the agency. Cassel was perfect as the Asset. He does focused single minded action as good as anyone. Ahmed does a good job as being a software vendor who got into bed with the CIA and now wants out. Paul Greengrass and Christopher Rouse wrote a barely adequate script, but it was Greengrass’s direction that lowed the Bourne bar.

Overall:  Although shaky, it is watchable because Damon makes it work.

Bourne Ultimatum

First Hit: Go see it. A good, fun, entertaining film if you like action.

This film fit well with the previous two films and I’m glad to say it will go no farther. Some sequels/prequels need to know when to stop and this one does. It’s over. The ride was excellent.

Matt Damon is perfect for the role in that he looks youthful and yet there is an age quality to him as well. In other words, he is believable for the role.

The action sequences are well scripted and play out in a satisfactory way. However, some of the other sequences were not as believable. I don’t think Jason Bourne would have been able to look through a single lens portable binocular, through two sets of glass in the midday sun and read the cover of the top secret document. There was just no way to do this at the angle presented in the film.

To make matters worse the director chose to present, to the audience, an angle showing the cover of the document in a way Jason Bourne would not have been able to see. The views were incongruent with the available information and therefore diminished the scene.

There were a couple of scenes like this and I think Paul Greengrass would have known better than to attempt to fool us this way. However, the worst part of this film, for me, is the shaky camera. Lose it or at least tone it down by 2/3.

I don’t think this adds to the action nor do I like how I get distracted by it. A filmgoer does not want to be distracted by what is on the screen. They want to be brought into the film. The last bit of criticism would be to the Albert Finney role.

Although I like Albert, I didn’t like that he looked older in the look back scenes than in the current time scenes. I think makeup would have made this sequencing better understood.

The other actors play well in this film, especially Julia Stiles and Joan Allen. David Strathairn is good however there was an un-believability to his role that didn’t quite work for me. However, it doesn’t take much away from the film as it is about Jason Bourne and the newly minted killers out to execute the orders to kill him.

I loved his interaction with Julia Stiles and then there is the ending. Perfect, I loved the scene in the café with her smile. It tells the whole story.

Overall:  A wonderful action film because the characters worked and the scenes match the action.