Support for LAist comes from
Local and national news, NPR, things to do, food recommendations and guides to Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire
Stay Connected
Listen

Share This

This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

Arts and Entertainment

'Jason Bourne' Needs To Tone Down The Seriousness And Focus On The Ass-Kicking

Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.

Why does Hollywood seem to hate Alicia Vikander? Yes, yes, I know she bagged an Oscar in February. But looking at her role in Jason Bourne, the fifth (sort of) entry in the Matt Damon superstar franchise, the film does everything it can to limit her abilities. Vikander plays a CIA cyber-analyst named Heather; an announcement about her appointment in the film reads the ultra-boilerplate phrase "I think I can make a difference." Like Joan Allen before her, she gets on the Bourne's trail but also suspects that her superior, the Southern-drawled CIA head played by Tommy Lee Jones, may be hiding the darker secrets.

Vikander gets little to do beyond strenuously stare at computer screens, deliver exposition in droll monotones without a hint of curiosity or excitement underneath that British accent. She gets to wear black eyeshadow with a gray-red lipstick and a clip tightening her hair back into an awkward bun all while sporting a series of dark blue pantsuits. Is her pouting lip and steely-eyed stares meant for her superiors or those behind the camera? I'm not demanding that she smile, but why does Vikander keep getting cast as these charmless and (literally) robotic personalities? Why does it take a filmmaker like Guy Ritchie (of all people) to be the only one to show off her looseness and playful side?

The issues with Vikander represent some of the bigger strains with the latest film from Captain Philips director Paul Greengrass, who also directed the Supremacy and Ultimatum entries. Once again, the plot is more or less a McGuffin; an early revelation by Julia Stiles' hacker and ally to Bourne puts him on the quest to find what happened to his dear old father. The template is simple: international locations, a few action beats, and nods to the international zeitgeist. Edward Snowden gets a couple shoutouts for posterity, while an action sequence set in the midst of a clash of Greece protesters dares not mention any reason for such chaos. A subplot dealing with a secret deal between Jones' CIA chief and Riz Ahmed as a Zuckerberg-style CEO of a 1.5 billion-user social media platform attempts to offer tough questions about... Facebook privacy settings?

Whether blockbusters have a duty or not to address The Way We Live Now is a debate for another time, but Jason Bourne's attempts at relevance feel desperately ham-fisted. This series has never been one to make jokes, but the somber tone of this franchise weights it in portentousness. The script, co-written between Greengrass and the film's editor Christopher Rouse, attempts to grapple with the political climate in between numerous shots of people staring nervously at computer screens. If anyone so much as cracks a single smile in the entire film, it must only be in the background of a shot. Damon may have become a superstar with Bourne, but films like The Informant! and The Martian have helped in perfect a type of chameleon everyman with his careless smiles and puffy face. Bourne sucks that dry from him, leaving only the hardened scars on his face.

Support for LAist comes from

The action style of the Bourne films has often remained contentious for its fans as well as detractors. Greengrass and his DP Barry Ackroyd shoot Jason Bourne on an array of digital and celluloid formats, but more than ever they lean toward coherence by choosing wider shots and holding them for an extra second longer. The film's action setpieces for the most part set up cat-and-mouse mysteries, with characters walking at a brisk pace around a location, broken up by swift moments of close-quarters combat. These kind of chases play into Greengrass and Rouse's editing style, where the parallel editing between different characters adds to the suspense with rhythmic increases in tempo. The two car chase sequences and some of the awe-inspiring moments would be so much cooler if we could see the damn vehicles crash, but the brutality of the hand-to-hand combats works for this editing style. In these smaller bouts, the camera might not give the entire sense of the choreography, but the visceral jolts it captures through the details of a punch or a kick giving a quick secession of seemingly bone-crunching moments in a span of four seconds. In a film so overboard with serious questions, one has to enjoy the small pleasures of an ass kicking.

Jason Bourne opens on Friday everywhere.

Peter Labuza is a freelance film critic, whose work has appeared in Variety, Sight & Sound, and The A.V. Club. Follow him on Twitter.

As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.

Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.

We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.

No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.

Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.

Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.

Chip in now to fund your local journalism
A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right
(
LAist
)

Trending on LAist