Jason Bourne

We thought Matt Damon and his superspy cinematic alter-ego Jason Bourne were done. But since director Paul Greengrass decided to go for round three, Damon is ready to be Bourne again. This time, the character is the title, so here we go.

Our man Bourne is living off the grid since he quit the CIA. It wasn't the friendliest of resignations; he exposed some Black Ops secrets and made the CIA angry. Meanwhile, his lone CIA friend Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), is digging up dirt on a new Black Ops program, Operation Iron Hand. She also finds out about the incident that prompted Bourne to join the Black Ops program Treadstone. She gets Bourne to meet her in Greece so she can disclose it.

CIA director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) wants to keep the truth under wraps. So he sends a guy known only as "The Asset" (Vincent Cassel) to go after Bourne. The Asset, who has a grudge against Bourne, takes out Parsons instead, so now Bourne's got a grudge. Meanwhile, Dewey is essentially strong-arming social media wiz Aaron Kallor (Riz Ahmed) into giving him intel. Kallor wants out, but Dewey won't let him. Bourne's umpteenth quest for the truth across Europe takes him to Las Vegas, where Dewey plans to end his contract with Kallor by force.

Greengrass and his newly promoted co-writer, editor Christoper Rouse, expand Bourne's story with more revelations than ever. The first three movies were about him finding the truth about his past; this one is about the truth behind the truth about his past. New converts will accept it at face value, while longtime fans will frown at the truth pileup. At least Jason Bourne doesn't leave new converts locked out for the first 30 minutes. It has enough detail to bring them up to speed on the story.

Not much has changed for Bourne since 2007. Our hero is still the same tough and stoic superspy. He still has to face a government conspiracy. And he gets into car chases. The head of said conspiracy, Dewey, is a serviceable cold bureaucrat. Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander), the new sympathetic CIA agent, made for a more interesting character than Bourne. Christian Dassault (Vinzenz Kiefer), the hacktivist who inadvertently gets the ball rolling, is barely a presence. The Asset is a capable villain with a sympathetic motivation who loses sympathy when we find out his full connection with Bourne. These characters leave a wide web for our audience to travel through.

Rouse's editing is a double-edged sword. It works when he builds some tense action scenes from cinematographer Barry Ackroyd's work. It doesn't when he cuts before the audience can process the action. This makes for an only serviceable action film. But the cinematography is special. The cities Bourne visit look their greatest at night. It's especially so when Bourne chases Asset across Vegas; you can see the whole city clearly.

So where does Bourne go from here? The Bourne Ultimatum should've closed the book that Jason Bourne added new pages too. What other Black Ops conspiracies are tied to Jason Bourne's life? Hopefully, whatever the answer is won't be so convoluted as this one, or worse, hideously retcon the first few films. Make the wait worthwhile.