Still fighting

It’s been nine years since we left Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) swimming in the East River—a perfect ending to a series that began with fishermen pulling an unconscious Bourne out of the water. The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum (we won’t count the Jeremy Renner–helmed spinoff The Bourne Legacy) are the kind of classic action movies you can watch over and over. And even if you are a repeat watcher, you might watch them if they came on TV—with commercials.

The series began with Bourne waking up with bullet wounds, a chip in his hip, and a case of amnesia. He spent several movies discovering who he was (a CIA assassin in a black ops program), thwarting the CIA’s attempts to eliminate him, and uncovering the agency’s corruption.

After all that, would the CIA really leave poor Jason alone? Damon was in his early 30s when the series began, and in this new film his hair is beginning to gray. He can still throw a mean punch, and he’s still what holds the audience.

Jason Bourne begins with Bourne living under the radar in Greece, participating in street fights for cash. (The film is rated PG-13 for violence and some language.) His former colleague Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) reappears with information about a new CIA black ops program and—of course—new details about Bourne’s history. Our latest CIA bureaucrats, played by Tommy Lee Jones and Alicia Vikander, are good additions to the cast.

The CIA tracks Parsons and Bourne to Athens, just as a current-events-appropriate riot is unfolding. The ensuing chase through flying Molotov cocktails and spewing fire hoses is the best Bourne sequence yet.

Paul Greengrass, who directed Supremacy and Ultimatum, returns to direct this movie, bringing along his and cinematographer Christopher Rouse’s panicky, hand-held camera style. The early Bourne movies, with their shaky footage and hand-to-hand fight scenes, were part of a shift away from the sleek style of big-budget action movies. Now movies in the Marvel and James Bond universes are a little grittier and the heroes are a little more tortured, like Bourne.

For Bourne fans, this movie delivers all the classic hits. Bourne travels the world, meeting contacts in busy European squares, chasing bad guys across rooftops, and visiting internet cafés to do covert Google searches.

But this plot is a little vacuous, retreading the path of the movies before. In some ways Jason Bourne’s reformulated plot resembles the Star Wars reboot in Force Awakens: They’re trying to destroy a Death Star—again!

The Jason Bourne screenwriters could have been more imaginative. Perhaps notably, the screenwriter from all the other Bourne films, Tony Gilroy, did not work on this movie. The screenwriters added a modern twist to this film: a showdown between the CIA and a social media company over data privacy. That is a legitimate and interesting modern problem, but it feels low-stakes at a time when Europe is facing regular terror attacks at its beaches and airports.

Maybe the lack of relevance is for the best. This is a summer blockbuster after all, and Greengrass’ frenetic action scenes leave no time to ponder the troubles of the real world. If you’re a demanding film aficionado, you’ll find the movie lacking in plot and creativity. But it’s a great ride for those who want to escape the sweaty outdoors, sit down with a cold soda, and watch Matt Damon open another locker with a secret package in a European train station.