First Bourne

Rating: 8/10 (9 August 2015)

The first in the successful Bourne franchise set the bar higher for future entries it has to be said. Matt Damon reinvented himself here as an action hero in the form of the title character, the first sight of whom we get is floating face down in a dark, stormy sea. He's not dead of course and recovers remarkably quickly from being shot so many times in the back, but once he does, he methodically works his way back to filling in his amnesiac memory as he finds out he's a broken-down killing machine who's now a liability to his employers.
Along the way, inevitably of course, he joins forces with a girl (there's always a girl) of the feisty and rootless type naturally, who although only taking Bourne on initially as the most expensive taxi-hire in history, naturally develops feelings for him, even as all hell seems to break loose around him. From there to the end the race is on for Bourne to get his memory and identity back before the bad-good guys get him. Considering the number of sequels spawned to date, you can guess our guy doesn't exactly lose, although rather the same can't be said of some of his most ardent pursuers.
What immediately set Bourne apart from other spy-action-hero types is that there are no gimmicks about him. The way that he comes across as an ordinary-average sort of guy (until you press his buttons) gets us on his side from the very start, our faith in him to come through as a good-guy in the end vindicated by the humanity he shows in his first would-be- assassination mission. More than that, the fast-cut action sequences are quite superb especially the expertly choreographed fight-scenes. The movie never slackens as it moves as relentlessly forward much like our hero's own mission to find himself.
Damon is terrific in the title part and dominates the film. The direction keeps the tension going right to the end, interspersing the dynamic, stylised action sequences with just enough character-setting to fill in the backgrounds, without slowing the film to a halt.
Even better was to come in the series but this excellent opener is more than just a "curtains-up" on one of recent cinema's best characters, it's an excellent espionage thriller in its own right.