Bourne Returns with a Vengeance

Rating: 9/10 (21 August 2016)

With a new director at the helm in Paul Greengrass and the return of star Matt Damon, this second film in the Jason Bourne series amps up the tension from frame one and never lets go.
Damon remains in fine form as the amnesiac super spy; building on his character arc even more as Bourne starts having memories come back from his checkered past. We begin to learn more about the events that lead to the happenings of the first movie; who Bourne had been after when he was attacked and left for dead, more information about Project Treadstone and its operations and why they are so keen on Bourne being eliminated. Damon's chemistry with his costars remains captivating as he must play cat and mouse with the CIA and deals with grief when his lover, Marie, is killed in the film's opening act.
Joining the game is an excellent Joan Allen as Pamela Landy, the new head of the task force that must capture Bourne at all costs. Allen does a top notch job playing Pam as neutral as possible even though she is adversarial at first to Damon's Bourne because she thinks he is killing her operatives, but her sympathetic side surfaces when she learns who is actually behind the deed and decides to aid Bourne's search for truth. Joining Allen but playing the real villain-like role is Brian Cox as Treadstone head Ward Abbott who will stop at nothing to rid the CIA of Jason Bourne in order to protect himself. Cox plays the role with a smooth gravitas that is not overdone or outright malevolent, but more subdued and calculated. And at last in the network of players is Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons; Stiles appeared briefly in "Bourne Identity" as a minor character. Nicky is finally expanded upon and given a larger role to play as she holds one key to Jason Bourne's past. She stays mostly on the sidelines throughout the film, but becomes central by the climax.
The film's narrative like its predecessor deviates from the source material it was based on. Killing off Bourne's love interest, Marie, in the first 30 minutes of the film is the biggest change that stands out. Marie remains alive in the novels upon which the trilogy is based (Bourne marries her and has a family by the "Bourne Ultimatum"), but her death in the film is meant to add an extra personal touch for Bourne to return and go after Treadstone. The action remains tense and thrilling as Bourne fights his way to Washington, D.C. from all over Europe.
This film is even better than the first, but in a class of its own.