They let Jeremy Renner try his hand at the Bourne game, but Greengrass and Damon re-upped for the 5th movie in the series, due out this week.
To get you ready, here’s the new version of Moby’s Extreme Ways.
I’m pretty excited about this one, but I’m bummed to see the luke warm reception it seems to be getting. :(
I can’t wait for this. Can’t. Wait. I loved the original three Bourne movies SO MUCH. Never saw Legacy, didn’t look great.
I’ve seen all these with my son. In the weeks after the first one came out, I remember rolling up a magazine and pretending to beat him by waving it around his head and going THOCK, THOCK, THOCK.
And then he would launch all the slow motion kick attacks.
Hahah, good times. In a few weeks he’s going to leave for college on the other side of the country, but we’ve had plans all summer to see this movie. Even if it sucks, I’m going to sit there and eat it up.
I didn’t mind the Renner flick, but Damon is the true Bourne in my book.
We just got back from it. Superb action. Almost no story. A Julian Assage analogue who thinks he can take on Jason Bourne in a fight. Alicia Vikander does such a good job with her rather shallow role that I didn’t even recognize her as the girl from Ex Machina
If you know anything about computer hacking, turn that part of your brain off before you start watching, or this movie will bug the crap out of you.
I was never bored, but this is by far the latest on plot of any Bourne movie.
Saw this tonight. You could have pieced this movie together from scenes taken from the first three Bourne movies.* There really isn’t too much new here. There is a car chase scene (Supremacy). There is a motorcycle chase, with motorcycle going up/down staircases (Ultimatum). There is one of those scenes where a dude is in a crowded public space and all the bad/good guys are watching him with sights and talking to one another with hidden microphones, and Bourne has to somehow whisk him away (Every Bourne movie must have this scene!). For all the predictability, though, it was still an enjoyable movie.
I really like Damon as Bourne.
* If you were to take some of the fight scenes from the original movie, then you would have some fight scenes that weren’t the shaky cam fight scenes. Why must we have shaky cam for fights? It would be an easier pill to swallow if Damon wasn’t so capable of pulling off convincing fight choreography.
The worst part of the movie for me came right from the start with the camerawork. Too much shakiness/blurriness that had me wondering if my eyes were starting to fail. I get the fact that it is an action movie, but they went too far with shaky cam this time around, and in general. It was a distraction, it added nothing to what is a pretty “meh” kind of movie.
The movie did basically reiterate all of the plot points of each Bourne movie, just in different locations. Absolutely nothing new. I’m disappointed.
The riot needed the shaky cam to be a convincing depiction of a riot. Still, I wish some of the fights had used a steady hand camera.
I didn’t really like it for all the points mentioned. Lack of story, pieced together scenes of past Bourne movies and the shaky cam. Though that was expected considering it was Paul Greengrass who was directing. I was really excited for it and saw it opening day which I haven’t done for any movie in years now.
Then there were lots of little things that bugged me about the movie that I just can’t forgo. It sadly was just another generic Summer action movie.
I can’t believe it’s 2016 and we’re still having discussions about the camerwork in Bourne films.
Anyway, everything in this movie was already done better earlier in the franchise. It probably won’t cause you physical discomfort to watch it, but it could bore you, and best case scenario, just remind you of better films.
I guess it’s nice that Moby gets another paycheck though. Extreme Ways is still catchy.
The shaky cam doesn’t bother me now. First time I saw Supremacy it did but now I gotten used to it and expect it. A lot of people seem to hate the new mix of Extreme Ways but I still like it.
Favorite scene:
When Bourne triangulates where the sniper is hiding in the auditorium, flashes a spotlight into the general area, then drills it with small arms suppression fire as everyone in the audience screams in panic.
If I see shaky cam in IMAX I think I will just throw up right away.
Anyway I reckon 1 == 2 > 3 (Legacy is ok but forgettable). I think I can wait for this to come out in retail.
Maybe I’ve just grown accustomed to the shaky cam in these movies, but it honestly didn’t bother me too much this time around. While I’d rate this one rental-worthy, it’s definitely the weakest film in the franchise, including Legacy.
Damon was pretty good, but Tommy Lee Jones looked bored. Vikander felt like a non-entity, though Vincent Cassel was scary enough as the heavy. Not a lot of dialogue - Seemed like the social media guy had the most lines.
The car chase on the Strip was amusing - took like 10 minutes to go from Aria to the Paris, which is maybe a 10 minute walk IRL. In spite of that, it was probably the most realistic Strip-chase scene I’ve ever watched (there was some traffic!).
I think there are some clips in the trailer that did not make the final cut. The most memorable is where he cold cocks the other dude in the fight club match in the trailer - and this is a compelling shot - in the film they used some sort of inside angle which was much less interesting. Not sure why that choice was made.
These comments are spot on. Though I would add there were just a few too many scenes of him just walking from point A to point B with the duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh theme in the background. I would have like more mystery as to whether or not TL Jones is a baddie. And if the CIA was having internal struggles and everyday agents were getting killed left and right, you would think someone would get reassigned and still not in control of making decisions.
I loved all of the OG Bourne movies to a greater or lesser degree, but this one was so much of a re-tread of the original series that it had trouble holding my interest. They just changed the name of the original black ops program and I guess thought that was all they needed to do.
As upthread though, the action is uniformly excellent…no-one directs utter onscreen chaos like Paul Greengrass. The beginning and ending chase scenes are brilliantly staged. Too bad about the dull plot. I’d still mildly recommend it if you want to just enjoy some top-notch popcorn chase scenes though.
Maybe we need to have a contest to guess the next black ops program for the next sequel…
Damon looked so young in those flashback scenes it reminded me of Good Will Hunting.
Well, that was overall disappointing. I mean, the execution of the action setpieces was overall solid, and the SWAT vehicle plowing through the other cars certainly was an awesome sight. But mostly it’s been “been there, done that” bits barely held together by what was a weak plot. Bourne trying to get someone out of the crowd. Bourne driving a motorcycle up and down some stairs. Bourne strangling someone. (Well, ok, ultimately breaking someone’s neck.) And so on.
I really enjoyed the first three movies and thought that the Supremacy and Ultimatum brought enough new and inventive bits to the table without feeling too repetitive, e.g. the final car chase in Supremacy or the terrific action sequence in Tangier and the fight the Desh in Ultimatum.
But by the time Ultimatum was over I was ready to move past the Bourne-finds-out-a-significant-detail-about-his-past thread and the sudden-flashbacks-hitting-Bourne-like-a-punch-in-the-stomach bits. Nope, the latest one is just more of that. I have no idea if it’s in line with the books, but the part about his father is already stretching it quite a bit. But the asset (Cassel) turning out to be the guy who did what he did in the past… seriously? SERIOUSLY? It was a super-dumb plot hook to make it right for the audience to feel good about Bourne killing him.
And there’s an abundance of gaps that are simply glossed over. The first time we see the asset, he’s being sent to Greece. How did they know about the whereabouts of Bourne and that Nicky would go to meet him there? The last time they tracked her she was in Budapest. I also like the idea how the police would solely focus (and manage to) chase Bourne initially while a huuuuge riot is going on. Or how they immediately spot and dispatch a special task force to go after the asset on the roof as if the police force totally wouldn’t be stretched thin during a massive riot situation.
With him being a wanted person, you’d think Bourne would bother with changing his appearance a bit. You know, growing your hair or completely shaving your head; getting a beard - all that. Nope. If you include the flashbacks, Bourne probably hasn’t changed his style even a tiny bit in over 20 years.
And what’s with all the IT nonsense? I’m not asking for utter realism in everything, but if the plot heavily relies on some high-tech stuff, it might help running it past by someone who maybe has a bit of an idea of what works and what doesn’t.
- “Use SQL to destroy the database!” - we laughed out loudly during that line.
- typing “run prediction algorithm” in the command prompt as if there’s only one such algorithm.
- The CIA being able to delete the data on Dassault’s notebook through some old cellphone nearby. That seems like some “we make up stuff as we need it” idea. Even worse: the writers easily could have done it without that nonsense by simply employing the bloody malware which had been successfully installed and already phoned home. It simply could have been a feature of that malware.
- My mind was massively boggled when they did the “Enhance!” thing. They didn’t even try to surgarcoat it or come up with some tech babble about how that would work - nope, straight went to “Enhance!”. In 2016. FFS.
- The face recognition system the CIA has running works just as fast as the plot needs it to work.
This was the first Bourne movie I’ve seen in the theater, previously seen bits on cable, but never a complete film. This pretty much nailed the movie for me. Simple characterization, mostly excuses for connecting set pieces. As the friend who convinced me to come said, the series is about stuff happening, Bourne himself says maybe 50 words per movie.