THE COMMERCIAL MOVIE OF THE WEEK
JASON BOURNE (2016) by Paul Greengrass
“I remember everything”
The history of action cinema is eternal. There are countless plot lines, events, protagonists of every type, villains of particular styles and topics, scenes that cry to heaven before their impossibility, chases, explosions and rebirths. Without any doubt, I fall short before the multitude of films who have opted for this cinema, effective as well as entertaining, that presents the complexity of seeing where to stand, as in the commercial and easy side (explosions, shootings and impossible chases) or on the other hand, the more independent style (slowness realism and development of believable characters). Many films were born of one or another side, some were re validated in form of second and third parts, ones were more of a comedy than action films and triumphed, and yet the ones that have turned into a saga formed by four or more films are really few. Without doubt the most known one would be James Bond, even though it has a more elegant atmosphere and has varied for all the possible styles inside the genre due the many changes of actor and personality. In contraposition with the classic Bond Jason Bourne is found, an anti-hero that tries to discover the truth when he loses consciousness, without being independent cinema but without stop being it.
Jason Bourne is the fourth film after the original trilogy (without counting the fourth instalment, totally independent to the story, and with other characters and directive team). In this new work by Paul Greengrass with Matt Damon, Jason Bourne has taken his memory back almost completely and lives isolated from the american society. His life is based on illegal fights to be able to earn a living while in his past memories circulate in his head, the ones from Treadstone, the ones that made his youth in a living hell, and how he was forced to become a covert man in the CIA who made the dirty work. Twelve years after the events of “The Bourne Ultimatum”, the facts are still kicking, and Nicky Parsons, his most defender in the previous films, looks for Bourne to give him a hidden secret about his father that she obtained after hacking the CIA s’ archives. This information doesn’t only keep this secret, since a new Treadstone project has raised, and they will have to join their forces to stop the CIA s’ president.
This work has a clear purpose: entertaining. Far from being seized by the topics, Greengrass focuses on a modern plot,with certain closeness with Black Mirror and to the facts informed by Snowden. If in the last trilogy everything was more archaic, an investigation carried by originality but typical, asking, investigating and threatening, in this case computers and new technologies are the key, both by the protagonist’s part (a Jason Bourne whose years don’t show) as by the CIA s’ part, directed by its president, interpreted by a slightly low Tommy Lee Jones. The female part is carried by Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) and Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander), both giving the Tenor C and they don’t distune especially surprising the new facet of Alicia Vikander. All this modernity doesn’t forget a bit from Bourne s’ esence: the understandable fights (how many times have we seen fights where what is happening isn’t known because of the camera s’ clumsiness), thanks to the director s’ quality, who always knows to take the best from the most important scenes. Unfortunately, not everything could be possible when it came to the action, since the big realism of the previous three works, which can make you think that it really can happen, is eliminated for certain commerciality. These facts can be seen in the eternal chases they go through casually, which reality is practically non-existent, and in the final battle with so many improbabilities.
The plot is completely different to the rest. It isn’t born with the idea of remembering, not for taking revenge either (even though it has a certain scent) and much less as a vechicle to feel good before his past stained with blood, but what happens in this movie that he tries to discover what happened to his father, who he was, and most importantly, know why. Not a big quantity of time will be inverted in this search because he won’t take long to find out, but at the same shady attitudes from this intelligence agency can be observed. When his story is settled, he can’t help but to introduce himself in this affairs to reveal the work how the american intelligence works, and with the help of certain people, he will reach his goal. Is is true, it’s obvious how the circle will close, but Bourne s’ details in connection with Lee (Alicia Vikander) the boss of the investigation are commendable, they hold an enrichment not seen often in the commerciality of the genre, and like this the film will be settled completely, with a conversation that unleashes into a listening, with the glance of the girl and the walk of the boy, a new case has been closed and he hasn’t gotten a friend, because he doesn’t want it no matter how much he needs it.
The return of the heavy weights of the franchise has re launched a saga touched bottom with The Legacy of Bourne. Nothing new is going to be seen, a different post production to give a new look to Bourne like in the fourth like in the mentioned fourth film isn’t made, and truth is it doesn’t need it. What was demanded was partly this, return to the parallelism of Bourne and the CIA, know more about the plans both have, introduce characters in a real way, see the original characters again without losing any freshness, and regenerate the template just enough. Worth of compliments it’s the boldness of the director to destroy the classic, a classic loved by the fans of the saga, but that was needed to give it a new atmosphere without destroying all the antique as if it was a hammer. A noticeable work of entertainment and fun stained for those action scenes that are closer to the Toretto from “Fast & Furious” than the Bourne of “Jason Bourne”. But the realization is still magnificent, perfectly measured and with very little saturation but it’s not… it’s not Jason Bourne. Where did that fight in the house of “The Bourne Supremacy”, where did that persecution of “The Bourne Identity” and that great ending of “The Bourne Ultimatum” where Nicky Parsons smiles at the television. The ultra real thriller from the previous films of the saga was replaced by the outstanding action and put aside the essence of the amnesic character, and even so we are in front of a good movie.
Traducido por: María García-Romeu.
