Review of Jason Bourne (2016) by Jpmanistan — 03 Aug 2016

The movie is entertaining, especially the last third when the action picks up. However, it is so nearly a parody of itself.

As other reviewers have noted, a lot of the movie is people walking briskly and talking into their wrist to someone else in a tech-laden van, or a control center, or some other computer-screen-filled place. Hollywood's glitzy, clean, never-buggy computer operating system is on full display here. And while technology has no doubt exponentially improved since the first Bourne movie, I still don't think we're at the point where the CIA can INSTANTLY view any closed-circuit camera in the world; INSTANTLY access any phone or internet device ANYWHERE. If you disagree, try getting reliable high-speed, wireless internet service in Albania. I know it's a movie but it is so ridiculous that it was terribly unbelievable. Anywhere anyone goes in this movie, Tommy Lee Jones and his fellow CIA goons can instantly see what's going on, shut down power, interdict phones, computers, anything. Batman didn't have this tech. No static? No lag? Ever? I don't think most of what happens in this movie tech-wise would be possible in even twenty-five years. It has gotten absolutely ridiculous. And I would be remiss if I didn't notice that the movie trotted out the classic 1990s techno-surveillance trope: "ENHANCE." It's 2016. It might be more possible to clean up images today, but the idea that a character standing in a room can just say the word, "Enhance," and cause a totally blurry, pixelated image of a smudge of a person taken with a telephoto lens (instantly uploaded remotely) to turn into a perfect picture of Julia Stiles' character is just absurd. Several people in the theater laughed out loud.

And speaking of unbelievable, what universe is this series operating in? In every Bourne movie there are massive street battles, dozens of government agents killed, explosions in major cities, terrible CIA projects are publicly exposed, director-level CIA personnel are publicly killed or tried (Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Diane Lane, et al.), murderous plots by the CIA are exposed, Congressional hearings held. And yet, there's always a new CIA director to step in and continue assassinating his butt off like before? Nothing changes? No, "Uh, remember a few years ago...maybe let's not assassinate an American billionaire in public." After the previous events... it's just getting crazy by now.

But TLJ is great. Damon is solid, and, in the end, I'm ready for the next one, featuring the new CIA director antagonist. Not a waste of money, but it's getting tired.