★★☆☆☆

I’m a straight guy and this is an action movie. It pains me beyond belief to give Jason Bourne franchise such a low rating. The writers just plain got tired. They tried to save a bad script by bringing in a few big names like Alicia Vikander and Tommy Lee Jones.

Recycled Jason Bourne Trope

I loved how makeup and wardrobe made Matt Damon look really haggard and Nicky (played by Julia Stiles) even more so. They even started out pretty good by having her tell him he couldn’t go on living like this for much longer. Then they blatantly run out of ideas and kill off Nicky so they can recycle (already?) the trope of killing a woman Jason likes to activate him.

Up until that point one could almost forgive the forced confrontation plot line. Up until then one could be excited about a new Bourne movie. After that it was an old Bourne movie we’ve all seen many times before.

The fault wasn’t with the acting or the actors. One really couldn’t find much fault with the action. Yes, it is supposed to be excessive, this is an action flick. No, the fault was squarely with the writers (or lack there of) and the studio. Either the studio used $5/day off-shore labor to write that script or they never looked at it before writing the check.

This is the end

Quite honestly, now that this installment has been released, I cannot see a way forward for the franchise. Killing off Nicky isn’t just honking off one fan. They’ve broken the continuity. That is a cardinal sin for a long running franchise. Nicky was the only female character actually in all of the movies. Now it is just Jason and that won’t work. Oh, they’ll try. They’ll even try to introduce another female for him to be close with, but, it just won’t work again.

Yes, you should watch this only so you can tell others you watched the film which did the franchise in.

For more movie rental ideas please see list one and list two.