"Jason Bourne" is Everything You Want It To Be, Shaky Cam and All

   You know his name. Bourne. Jason Bourne. The most dangerous former CIA operative is back people! Man, I've been looking forward to this movie for a long time. I pride myself on my movie news knowledge, but I'll be honest when I say that I had no idea this movie was coming until I saw the debut trailer during the Super Bowl. My jaw dropped! Jason Bourne is one of the coolest action characters to date, and Matt Damon has solidified himself as an action icon with this franchise. Though there are many spy-franchise characters to boot (i.e. James Bond, Ethan Hunt, etc), Jason Bourne is one of the more interesting ones of the bunch. The Bourne Trilogy is one of my favorite trilogies; the stories are so fluid and the movies themselves are so much fun to watch. In fact, in preparation for Jason Bourne, I spent this week rewatching the trilogy, minus the Jeremy Renner one. I hadn't seen them in a long time, and I had forgotten just how good they really are. I also noticed by the end of The Bourne Ultimatum (the last one), the trilogy felt cohesive. Like, I was okay with how it ended; it felt complete. So, my interest was peaked of course when news of a new Bourne movie was coming. And let me just say, it was as awesome as I had hoped.

   After uncovering the government programs Treadstone and Blackbrair, Bourne was assumed dead at the end of the trilogy, although we all know that's not the case. This movie picks up some years later. Bourne is in hiding and is once again drawn out to uncover hidden truths about his past. Sounds a bit like all the other ones right? Well, when you're dealing with a former CIA operative who has amnesia, uncovering truth is a large story spring board. Plot wise, this is about as detailed as I'll get because anything more than this would potentially spoil things. The story itself moves at a fairly quickened pace and never really slows down. There is, however, this subplot about this new form of social media being launched that I honestly thought wasn't all that relative? There is a shoehorned reason for this subplot to exist, I just think they spent more time on it than needed. Other than that I thought the story was really fun.

   Of course, Matt Damon returns as the man himself. Damon has aged well, not saying that he's old or anything, but the last Bourne movie he was in was in 2007. Isn't that crazy? We haven't seen a Matt Damon Bourne movie in almost ten years! With this new story, we obviously get new characters. Tommy Lee Jones plays CIA Director Robert Dewey, a man with multiple agendas in play, who as a character you constantly question his motives. The fantastic Alicia Vikander plays Heather Lee, a newish member to the CIA determined to make her way through the ranks; and Julia Stiles returns as Nicky Parsons, the only other recurring character from the previous films. There are a slew of other characters but these are the main ones. Everyone brings their A-game. The acting across the board was great. Director Paul Greengrass, who directed The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, returns with his shaky cam and high-octane action set pieces, and delivers a movie worthy of the franchise.

   Action is synonymous with Jason Bourne and some of the coolest hand-to-hand fight scenes put to film are in these movies. There are some great ones in this movie, one in particular that was just visceral and very Bourne-esque. Yet, I wished there was more. After having seen the previous movies before hand, I think there was a bit more action in those than in this one. That being said, there are a lot of really intense scenes and some awesome car chases. Paul Greengrass knows action, and he's smart with his scenes. Nothing seems over-the-top or unrealistic. His action is very grounded and real, which makes for an entertaining viewing experience. As a whole, this movie is a pure joy. There are some revelations in the story that are interesting and moving; if you're a fan of the franchise you'll dig it. If you just wanna see and awesome action movie, this will do it for you as well. If you haven't seen the previous films before, you might get lost a bit, but the story is easy enough to follow that you should still have a good time.

(AND IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE OTHER ONES, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!)