Fair but with Matt Damon, it had potential to be really good

Rating: Null/10 (9 June 2004)

The Bourne Identity is Matt Damon's most meaningless role ever. Although Damon's character Jason Bourne is a great spy-type figure in terms of his ability to survive an onslaught of guys who want to kill him, I really just had zero interest in the character itself. I know other guys will respond with, `Well, who cares about character development, that's not the point. It's just supposed to be a fun action movie', but I've seen Matt Damon take roles that weren't supposed to be complex and turn a decent movie into a good one by doing something with the character. If you've seen Talented Mr. Ripley, for example, you might be disappointed with Damon's role here.
There are a couple pluses to the film, as I mentioned earlier. There are some action sequences here that would make James Bond jealous and a car chase that could rival the French Connection. There's also a love story going on which is nicely low-key staying in the background. I'd even say this could have been a really good action movie, if only the action star would have lived up to his potential.