Raise your hands if you have read Robert Ludlum’s books based on Jason Bourne, notably Bourne Identity. No? Raise your toe if you have seen the movie? Yes? Hmmm…i can count many toes!
Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum are thrilling action movies based on the character Jason Bourne, a spy working for the CIA who loses his memory and goes through a series of block buster events in a desperate attempt to regain his identity.
It’s a simple plot really, and could have been a mundane movie, had they not cast Matt Damon as the leading character. In the book, Bourne is a super spy, terribly efficient even counting bullets and mastering footsteps. Matt Damon takes this even further by making it seem real.
If you haven’t watched – or read it – let me outline the sequence that leads to the 2016 movie. In Bourne Identity, we are introduced to the character – a spy lost at sea full of bullet holes. He does not remember anything but has some weird instincts like dismantling a gun with one hand. He realises his past is deep and goes out to find his true identity.
Then comes Bourne Supremacy, a fight between Jason Bourne and a rogue CIA unit spanning several countries. Supremacy is all about action and for me it is the best Bourne movie. Finally Bourne goes to the source of his memory – and misery – the CIA headquarters, in Bourne Ultimatum, only to discover he was a bad ass assassin – a fact that doesn’t sit well with him.
Unfortunately the ending of Bourne Ultimatum ends with the death of Marie – the love of his life and anchor to ‘normalcy’. This marks the beginning of ‘Jason Bourne’, the 2016 movie that couldn’t think of a better name.
The good thing with the 2016 movie is that it lives up to the fast paced action that we are used to, and tries to make sure Bourne knows his identity fully.
The bad thing is they have reached the end of a good story. They need to do what Sony does with Spider Man movies: create a reboot with a different young actor and same old story told in a modern way.
Let’s hope the next Jason Bourne turns out to be Justin Bieber 🙂
Rated 8.5 out of 10.
