They should have stopped with the Ultimatum

Rating: 4/10 (19 September 2012)

This film have no reason to exist. It sadly creates a void on every fan of the Matt Damon Trilogy.
After they conclude the trilogy brilliantly, I thought "what? Another one? Why?", but even so, I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt, after all, we still have Tony Gilroy who wrote the trilogy, so OK, let's give it a chance.
Aaaaand... sadly I was right at my first statement.
Tony Gilroy shone writing the trilogy, but here, he fails both as a writer and a director.
The story is hollow and confused and apparently has no reason to exist other than introduce new characters, the characters are awful and the pace of the film is crippled. Until the middle of it it's boring and we don't give a damn about the new characters, and from the middle to the end, it's too goddamn fast.
After the action starts you just don't care anymore, not mentioning that it's badly filmed and makes no sense. Gilroy looks lost as a director, not knowing the path he wants to take.
Matt Damon and Franka Potente was solid as a couple and as characters. We cared about them and we are crushed in the very moment that Maria dies. We can feel the pain that Bourne is going through and we pray for him to be safe, to succeed.
Here, Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz tries to act convincingly, but their characters and the story of the film doesn't add up. There's no mystery, there's no dramatic tension and there's no charisma.
When the action was happening in the final 40 minutes of the film, I didn't give a damn, I was looking at my watch, hoping the movie to end as fast as possible.
The only redeeming qualities of this picture was Edward Norton, completely underused here, some references to the other movies here and there, the music score, the quick appearances of Joan Allen as Pamela Landy and David Strathairn as Noah Vosen who both remembers us for a few moments in the final scenes that we are seeing a Bourne movie and the Bourne theme "Extreme Ways" when the credits roll.
I'm very disappointed with the outcome, I still think there was no reason for them to continue after Ultimatum and I'm seriously thinking about abandon the series and stick only with the Liman/Greengrass trilogy if the next movie doesn't improve to return to the crowning glory of the first trilogy.
In a nutshell, give me the Damon trilogy anytime, but this... you'd better left it alone as a failed attempt to continue something that doesn't need to be continued.