JASON BOURNE IS BACK, BITCHES!

In Jason Bourne, 12 years have passed since Bourne (Matt Damon) has disappeared off the grid after taking down Briarcliff. Now, still tortured and full of regrets, he has bunkered down in Athens. He lives life day-to-day, fighting in underground fight clubs. When ex CIA employee Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles, who is very good in her minor but important role here) comes to him with information that the CIA is developing a new Treadstone program called Iron Hand, which is close to becoming fully operational, Bourne willingly steps back into action. Along the way, he learns dark secrets his father hid involving the original Treadstone program.

Matt Damon is back once more as Jason Bourne. He doesn't seem to have as big of an issue with killing this time around, but is still pretty sympathetic. It's hard not to feel for where we find him at the start of the film. He's still a bad-ass, and it's always a joy to watch him spank the CIA (You think the CIA would have learned their lesson as far as Treadstone goes by now). It feels great to have him back.

 Alicia Vikander plays Heather Lee, the head of the CIA Cyber Ops Division. She is a loyal member of the organization that decides to play both sides when Bourne comes out of hiding. Are her intentions selfish, or more altruistic? She makes for a great, memorable character as it's hard to tell who's side she's really on throughout the film (It would be interesting to see where a sequel would take her character).

Tommy Lee Jones is great as Robert Dewey, the corrupt and slimy Director of the CIA and person in charge of the Iron Hand program. He makes for a nice villain and is also fairly memorable. Vincent Cassel plays The Asset, a ruthless, unhinged, and angry CIA assassin who has some personal beef with Bourne. It is his mission to find Bourne and finish him. Cassell is appropriately threatening, and makes for a great adversary for Bourne to butt heads with.

 Riz Ahmed plays Aaron Kalloor, a Silicon Valley tech guru who has created a new platform called Deep Dream that collects users private data and stores it all in one central place. He used to be in cahoots with the CIA, offering them a backdoor into the system so they could have access to all of the user data. He backs out of his agreement after suffering a crisis of conscious, which is an issue since Deep Dream is integral for Iron Hand to work properly. Ahmed does a fine job, but his subplot comes across as unnecessary and really only serves as an attempt to make this outing more topical and current.

Paul Greengrass returns to the directing chair (He co-pens the script alongside editor Christopher Rouse). In his very capable hands, Jason Bourne is a fast-paced, thrilling, tense, and taut thrill ride. The action scenes that occur throughout are great. The one that opens the film is a motorcycle chase set during an escalating riot in Greece, while the final one is a pulse-pounding car chase through the streets of Vegas (with a large amount of pedestrian vehicles getting completely destroyed) that leads into an exhilarating and impressive fist-fight. Both scenes are exceptional.

The cinematography by Barry Ackroyd is pretty at times, gritty at others. The editing by Christopher Rouse is more than competent, and resembles the editing found in Ultimatum. It's fast-paced and choppy, but you can still make out what's going on. This last (?) outing is the most anti-Government outing since The Bourne Identity. This film casts constant, suspicious glances at Government activity and openly questions if we can trust our own Government to do right by us (much like Identity did before).

While the opening teases that  Iron Hand (a black ops surveillance program) will play a large role in the proceedings, in reality Jason Bourne is more concerned with delving into Bourne's dad's past and connections to Treadstone. The answers they come up with are pretty interesting and make sense, but don't exactly feel necessary or like they advance the franchise in any significant way. The ending to Jason Bourne seems to hint that Iron Hand is still very much a threat, but it remains to be seen if we'll get any more Bourne sequels (I would guess not).

After the disappointment that was Legacy, it's hard not to walk into Jason Bourne more than a little cautious. Luckily, those fears are unfounded. Jason Bourne takes audiences back to the glory days of the first three Bourne films while updating the material a bit for the modern day. I wouldn't be opposed to another sequel, but if this really is the final outing for Bourne, then Jason Bourne closes out the franchise in a sweet, thrilling, appropriate, and satisfying way.

3.5 STARS