"Jason Bourne" Trailer Reaction

In 2007, Matt Damon's Bourne trilogy wrapped up with "The Bourne Ultimatum." These 3 movies were all fantastic, and brought a new cleverness to the plot of a summer blockbuster. Ever since then we've been seeing a string of very clever stories popping up amidst the swarm of action and explosion ridden movies. Think an "Inception" among the Michael Bay Transformer movies. Bourne also redefined the spy genre in the same way, given that we were just coming out of the Roger Moore and Piece Brosnan Bond eras. "The Bourne Legacy," on the other hand, was seen as something of a step backwards by many, with the movie certainly not reaching the critical and commercial heights of the Damon trilogy. Thankfully, Matt Damon is back as Jason Bourne in the latest instalment of this franchise to uncover more conspiracies and take out a whole bunch of bad guys. Check out the trailer below.

Bourne is back kicking and shooting! This looks exactly like the original Bourne movies, which is by absolutely no means a bad thing. The action looks incredible here, from the heavily publicised one-punch knockout that can be seen once again at the end of the trailer to the car chase on the Las Vegas roads to the riot scene that takes place in Athens (in the movie, at least). All of the action sequences look to be keeping the brutal, realistic style that Bourne is known for, such as the quick cuts of Bourne knocking a random henchman into a chair. The swift and quick movements are also great to watch, like when Jason pulls a molotov cocktail straight out of a rioter's hands to use for himself. Basically, the action all looks incredible, which is helped by the fact that barely any CGI is on display here, if any at all. Practical effects will always look better than some computer-generated effects, and the movie should be highly commended if it focuses on the use of these techniques throughout the entire run time.

The plot of the movie looks to have been updated for the modern world, bringing in a story surrounding hacking and technology, with Scott Shepherd's character saying near the beginning of the trailer that a new breach of security could be "worse than Snowden." This kind of plot is unlike any that we've seen in a Bourne movie before but that's not the only difference between this and the other movies. The entire dynamic between the FBI and Bourne looks to have flipped in this newest instalment. Whereas it was only really Joan Allen's Pamela Landy who supported Bourne and believed that he was trying to help, it looks like Alicia Vikander and Tommy Lee Jones (the director of the CIA) will also be on the side of Bourne and help him track down the real villains of the story, potentially played by Vincent Cassel. I am happy to see these additions to the story this time round, rather than just a re-run of the stories that took place in Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum.

This movie also looks to have had some real star power injected into it, with the aforementioned Tommy Lee Jones, Vincent Cassel and Alicia Vikander going the cast in addition to the returning Matt Damon and Julia Stiles. While Jones and Cassel are both great additions to the line up, the real member of the cast that I am most excited to see is Alicia Vikander, who has done some amazing work in both "Ex Machina" and "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." last year. Thankfully, she looks to be playing a strong female lead in the CIA opposite Tommy Lee Jones, and hopefully she'll be able to show off her talents to a mainstream audience in this role. All of the cinematography and production design also looks excellent, with the action all being very easy to see and understand despite it's fast-paced nature.

I love action movies. I love smart plots in movies. What I really love to see in a movie is an equal balance of strong, action sequences and an intelligent plot to drive the story forward. The Bourne franchise has always had this and Jason Bourne thankfully looks to have all of this. With some great-looking performances, set pieces which will be scattered throughout the world and some amazing technical work. It's definitely not hard to see why this is the movie many people are most excited for this summer and, thanks to this trailer, I am one of those people.

Jason Bourne is releasing on the 29th of July, 2016

Starring Matt Damon, Alicia Vikander, Tommy Lee Jones, Julia Stiles, Vincent Cassel, Scott Shepherd, and Riz Ahmed