‘Jason Bourne’ Review: Yep, Barack Obama Ruins Everything

At the time, the political side of me despised “The Bourne Supremacy” (2004) and “The Bourne Ultimatum” (2007), both of which were directed by Paul -ShakyCam- Greengrass (stepping in for Doug Liman, who introduced thriller-writer Robert Ludlum’s character in 2002’s “The Bourne Identity.”) Here we were in the middle of a brutal war against terrorism and here was a major film franchise doing everything in its power to cynically undermine our victory.

Because I can compartmentalize my politics away from my love of film, what really drove me crazy, though, is that the franchise did succeed as a viscerally angry commentary on the times. Agree or disagree with that anger, there was no denying Greengrass and his screenwriter Tony Gilroy captured the mood of a large part of the country and translated that urgency into two blockbuster action films, each more successful than the last.

Nine years after saying he was done-done-done, Greengrass and his retarded shaky-cam returns with “Jason Bourne,” which, on top of our economy, is the second thing Barack Obama ruined this weekend.

Art requires a muse, even if it is something as morally misguided as seething rage at a sitting president desperately trying to keep us safe.

Art requires a muse, even if it is something as morally misguided as seething rage at a sitting president desperately trying to keep us safe. For Greengrass (who co-wrote the script) and star Matt Damon, that muse is dead, killed by an equally misguided love for Barack Obama — so dead that “Jason Bourne” is eager to convince us that its title character is a patriot who loves and believes in America!

Huh?

Whuh?

Talk about killing your franchise’s edge.

The pieces of the “Bourne” films you know and love (with the political context gone, I can now relax and enjoy them) are all there: Following a clue, Bourne goes someplace dark and exotic; the evil CIA uses Amazing and Scary Technology to find him; someone yells, “Send in the asset! We can’t let him get away this time!”; woefully unprepared assets get their butts kicked; rinse-wash-repeat. Constant movement, movement, movement captured on film by a cocaine monkey and edited by a blender set on Margaritaville.

Greengrass does his best to capture today’s Important Issues — Edward Snowden, the rise of social media, Silicon Valley’s robber-barons, riots in Greece, WikiLeaks — but he’s no longer angry. Even more than the action, it was Greengrass’s spoken and unspoken editorializing against our government that relentlessly drove “Supremacy” and “Ultimatum.” As dark as his heart was, at least there was one.

With Precious Obama in power, the anger has evaporated, leaving us with an episodic plot set in current events rather than commenting on them.

With Precious Obama in power, the anger has evaporated, leaving us with an episodic plot set in current events rather than commenting on them.

Another mistake is the hook used to keep the franchise focused on Bourne’s past. I sympathize with this desire. Without it, the franchise becomes just another Man On a Mission series competing with Bond and Ethan Hunt. Nevertheless, the series is so tired and out of ideas it ends up betraying its idealistic left-wing roots in two surprising ways:

By act three, Liberal Superhero Jason Bourne is only out for -gasp!- revenge. And…

…in order to get information he goes the full Jack-Gitmo-Bauer on a guy.

Naughty-naughty.

Between bouts of boredom, I was entertained at times. “Jason Bourne” is better than “Spectre,” “X-Men: Apocalypse,” “Star Trek: Beyond,” and “Ghostbusters,” but doesn’t come close to its predecessors or the latest entries from the “Mission: Impossible” and “Fast and Furious” franchises.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC