Michael Corvin

I kept expecting the dad to show up at the end, which would have been lame.

bluetoast

Bourne getting lucky - don't forget that the expo just had the exact right free samples he needed to do on the fly surveillance. Although I did miss the signature "Bourne is on the phone with someone and reveals he's been watching them the whole time" situation.

And- I haven't seen 2 or 3 since they came out- foegetting a ton of shit is not exactly the best way to watch this series, but I guess the gist is that Bourne keeps getting fucked over while uncovering shit. I did catch Matt Damon's 90 second summary.

By the way - is this following the books at all? I know there's like 10 of them, but since they're not going with the old naming, I assumed it diverged. Additionally, I assume the Renner shit is on ice for a long time - were there even any references to it at all?

Solid Snake

I haven't seen Legacy or this one but... is it still in the plans to have Renner's character and Bourne meet up at some point? They talked about this when Legacy was going on. Wouldn't be hard to believe that it's no longer the plan either based on how much is said of Legacy.

slop101

Maybe if they got Tony Gilroy in on it - he wrote all the other Bourne movies except for this one (and it shows).

Barth

What a snoozer, literally. I had a beer and dinner before hand and was nodding off during most of the middle of the movie. I expected more. I really liked Ultimatum. EW gave it a B+ I think, it's more like a C- for me.

asianxcore

Even though that part was small, it felt extremely goofy and lazy in terms of writing.

Saw it tonight. Enjoyed the cast (especially Damon, Cassel and Jones). Plot was sort of whatever. Both big chase scenes were really fun.

hanshotfirst1138

This was unquestionably well-made. Greengrass' craftsmanship is on full display. The editing in that Athens set piece alone is incredible. Unfortunately, it doesn't bring anything new, and the "man on the run" formula feels way outdated. Greengrass and Damon talked quite about how they waited to do this because of the recent political climate-Wikileaks, Snowden, etc.-and that got me really interested. That sounds like it'd be a great fit for the Bourne series. Unfortunately, this just takes those ideas and grafts them onto the old framework, and the formula is getting stale. There's still fun to be had, but after nearly ten years, there were so many cool things they could do with this sequel, and instead they settle for more of the same. It's pretty good more of the same, but we've seen it so many times before that it feels as good as it needs to be, but not better.

The lack of Tony Gilroy really showed. I think the narrative in this one was really choppy. The Bourne films are all a succession of set pieces, but Gilroy's narratives always had some cool cloak-and-dagger spy stuff and politics. This tries to do that, but I don't think it has the same flow.

I'll buy it to complete my collection, and it's not terrible, but it's a bit of a disappointment considering how long I've been waiting on this particular sequel.

I like that idea in theory. Playing Bourne as sort of broken and the whole thing as stripped down was an interesting idea, but it unfortunately highlighted how thin the narrative was.

That sequence was cool, though the fight following it was a bit disappointing. That said, I think the Athens set piece was the real showstopper.

Extremely. It was forgivable doing the formula for the first three, but this was ten years later and there are all kind of new things they could do with it. It really felt stale.

I didn't love the film, but the idea of the internationally mapped conspiracy in The Bourne Legacy was quite interesting. I think they should try to explore that more.

I like the direction they took her character in this one. I'd have liked more of the cyber-terrorism stuff. That would've been an interesting angle, ala Michael Mann's flawed but interesting Blackhat.

That's always a bit of a catch-22 with these films. While they allege to be more "realistic" than the average action film, and with less CGI, the still usually have unstoppable Terminator-style assassins. That kind of hyperrealism is fun up to a point, but it works better in doses.

While I don't doubt that there's some truth to it, the way the CIA can hack into pretty much anything anywhere in these movies is rather a plot contrivance. And yeah, God, even my dumb ass would be like "take the computer offline!"

Osiris3657

Well, I thought this was fine in the large scope of things, but yes, it's unquestionably the weakest of the 4 Bourne films (not counting Legacy). I just love the character of Bourne, so that automatically gives it at least 3 stars. It was great seeing him back after nearly a decade.

That being said, the story felt tired and rushed. Basically, Greengrass just felt the pressure (more money) of the studio to finally get another Bourne film out there, and this is the best he could come up with under the circumstances. Gilroy was definitely missed.

Maybe it's just me, but the editing felt more chaotic than ever. The action was way more frantic and confusing to watch. Keep the camera alittle more steady and stop cutting so much, Greengrass.

Also, the one big fistfight was disappointing, mainly because the editing. Definitely the weakest of the series. Dare I say bring back Doug Liman?

About Vikander: that American accent was horribly forced. It was painfully obvious and a few English pronunciations slipped through anyway. Her character was fine though.

I'll give it 3 1/2 stars. It was great to see Bourne back, but I hope Gilroy comes back too. I wish Damon would give another director a chance with the series though...he doesn't seem to be kidding when he says he won't do Bourne w/o Greengrass. And as much as Legacy was mediocre, I did like Renner's Cross character and hope we get to see Bourne and Cross team up in the future. This movie does not keep me from looking forward to future installments.

Grade: C+

Seven%Solution

Probably the worst movie-going experience I've had in a very long time. Constant talking, cell-phones, blah, blah, blah. And it didn't help my opinion of the film, which was probably far more negative than necessary.

It's come up a few times - lack of Tony Gilroy is a major punch to the gut - and most of, if not all, the technology was just ridiculous and unbelievable.

If anything, it's made me want to go back and re-watch the original three films, which I greatly adore and have no seen for several years.

maingon

The editing and camera work in this one completely did a disservice to the action scenes. Especially the fight scenes and the amazing car chase in Vegas. I couldnt tell what was happening half the time! I dont know... I feel like the camera work was way better in all the previous movies. I atleast felt like I knew what was happening and had a sense of energy. This it didnt. It was just a chaotic mess.

Still thought the movie was okay. I really didnt care about what was going on and it felt like everyone was just going through the motions.

Mabuse

Greengrass was the worst thing to happen to these films. The only good one is the first. It's a tight little thrill machine with a couple of surprises. The rest are inept, with a lot of shaky camera and shakier apologetic political subtext.

Why So Blu?

Ultimatum was excellent. It's the best one out of the Greengrass flicks. I think Legacy is the worst of the franchise but that's a non-Damon picture.

mattysemo247

I finally got a chance to see Ultimatum and I agree, it's the best of the franchise. I also slightly take back what I said about Stiles. She was slightly better in that one.

fumanstan

Finally saw this, and while I enjoyed it it was definitely the weakest of the Damon movies and the plot in particular was extremely lacking. The entire story just felt weak and boring, especially the entire dad thing which was just uninteresting and didn't keep me as enthralled as the previous movies. While I enjoyed Cassel and Jones, I hate how they were referenced as having such ties to Bourne's past even though we've never seen them before. Also hated seeing Nicky die.

Still, action was great, Vikander was really good and interesting, especially with the way the movie ended, and seeing Damon kick ass is always entertaining.

Ash Ketchum

How do you text someone with one hand without even looking? Vikander's character seemed to do that with Bourne more than once.

Also that tech start-up guy worries that his acolytes are going to find out about his secret deal with the CIA director. So what does he do? He goes to lunch in a very public restaurant in D.C. with the CIA director. And to top it off, he then appears onstage with the same CIA director in a cyber convention event in Las Vegas that's been heavily advertised featuring both their names and images. Way to keep a secret, pal!

Also, in every city around the world where Bourne shows up, the CIA director calls in a "team" to move in and neutralize Bourne. Which, of course, they never do. So much for the efficiency of these teams. Yet when Bourne shows up in Vegas where the CIA director and his entourage have gathered? No team. They rely on Las Vegas cops who chase Bourne and the Asset into an underground tunnel and then give up the chase while Bourne and the Asset have a knockdown dragout fight in the tunnel, not far from its entrance, long enough for every CIA team in the world to show up and get them, yet the Vegas cops leave them alone.

slop101

Blackberry? Though I couldn't tell what kind of phone she was using.

fumanstan

A lot of the tech stuff was definitely handled poorly, especially given the focus on that to the overall plot and the underdeveloped hacker guy who's name they started throwing around without really establishing him first.

TheMovieman

Although the first 3 movies were serious, there was a fun factor to them. This one lacks any fun and it appears those involved, from Greengrass to Damon, slept walked through (Stiles especially, you could tell she didn't give a f***) with a bad screenplay (Tony Gilroy was sorely missed) and this film just seemed to be a cliches of its former self. Some decent action but otherwise a very mundane and mediocre action film, which is a shame.

Solid Snake

Muscle memory. I do it all the time at work. I don't really care to do so but I can.

Thrush

All of the sequels literally have the exact same plot. Bourne is in hiding. He emerges to once again take down the leader of Treadstone, because reasons. Along the way Treadstone hires a superbadass assassin to take out Bourne to whom Jason may or may not have had history with.

I swear they come up with a new leader of Treadstone for Bourne to kill like every movie. Hes killed like a half dozen of them so far. An this organization has supposedly been defunct for years.

This was boring and repetitive. The previous ones were at least fun. This was not.

Superman07

Ended up renting this. Had intended to see in the theater, but just didn't get around to it. I did go in with lower expectations since I had come across mixed reviews.

I think I echo most of the sentiments that others already said. This came across as derivative of the other entries in the series. There were even a few scenes where the action was taken almost straight out of the other films. Maybe it was intentional? Examples were when Bourne was about to get t-boned during the Vegas drive, the motor cycle chase vs the escape at the beginning of the second film (both with ranged snipers), and the final hand fight with the pot lid.

Not that any of it was bad, it just fell a bit flat.

The other thing I'm a bit puzzled about it how this sets up sequels. So Bourne knows there is another program out there and he'll need to work to uncover more details and take it down? I'd have like more of a hook/preview on what that story might be; otherwise this turned into a vendetta story of sorts.

Positive things:
- Athens was great and had a true sense of chaos.
- was great to see Nicky Parsons again. Nice callback to the originals.
- Didn't see the twist at the end coming. I appreciate how that was handled.

I still love the character and series and would be happy to have more installments. The series does handle suspense well, and keeps the plot moving. If not, I think we could have stopped with the previous one as the way that ended was really well done, and came full circle to beginning of Identity.

Others seem to have been very down on the Arron Cross installment with Renner, but I enjoyed it a lot. I think it would be great to have the two come together, even if it's only a small portion of the next Bourne. If done right, I think they could do another Cross film as a setup to the next Bourne film with Cross having to track down Jason based on the fallout of this installment.

Kal-El

Saw this on the plane coming back to the states. I liked it as much as the other Damon Bourne entries, but I did miss Tony Gilroy's writing. And I absolutely hate that they killed off Nicky. I love Julia Stiles.

I think it would be great if the evolution of the series is him going back to work FOR the gov't instead of against it.

OldBoy

Please spoiler tag for me: do we get Moby on end credits?

TheMovieman

OldBoy

Man, not sure I want to know or get my dash hopes or possibly something to look forward to. Maybe just watch it soon...