Bourne too late

Rating: 5/10 (24 March 2015)

Were the producers right to re-boot the Bourne franchise without Matt Damon? Well, everything and everyone else is at the moment, it seems, often while the original is still a recent memory, so I guess I should have been expecting this. By very simply expostulating that Jason Bourne wasn't the only brainwashed super-agent out there trying to find himself, it's really very easy to present another on-the-run rogue operative, this time Jeremy Renner's Aaron Cross, returning to hunt and haunt his masters.
However, the almost exact re-running of the plots of the three Damon-led films into one (or so it seemed to me), deflated my expectations somewhat. Renner does well enough in the lead but lacks something of the single-mindedness of purpose which Damon's driven acting style imparts to the role. I also found the plot somewhat laboured and far too much tech-speak employed, especially by Cross's pursuers.
Of course what you expect most from a Bourne film are exciting fight-scenes, daredevil chases and hair-raising car-stunts. These are present but not always correct, Cross's rescue of female scientist Marta (played by Rachel Weisz) in particular lacking edge and while the pair's escape from the Thai police, plus a government-hired assassin let loose just to kill Cross, does better, taking in the obligatory race across the rooftops and a motorbike duel between them (at rush-hour time of course), but again scenes like these only take you back to similar happenings in Bournes 1-3, where I think personally they were done just a little bit better. Edward Norton gets the part of the big bad Government bureaucrat tracking down Cross with unimaginable surveillance systems which would astound even George Orwell, a part he plays with a steely, haughty resolve.
Cross and Marta's apparent escape at the end leaves plenty of scope for a sequel or two and there is the intriguing thought that Bourne and Cross's paths could match in their common purpose, but I fear it might need a development like that to keep the series going. I quite enjoyed this blockbuster but in many ways it did have a sense of déjà-vu about it, although given the central character's identity problems, maybe I shouldn't be complaining.