Plot
Following the downfall of Operations Treadstone and Blackbriar, the CIA decide to “clean house” – and close another mission called Operation Outcome.
Aaron Cross, one of the ‘Outcomes’ who has been banished to Alaska for going AWOL, is presumed killed in attacks set out by his former army commander Col Eric Byer – who is in charge of shutting down the program.
Cross travels to Chicago, to seek out Dr Marta Shearing – who was the Dr who assisted him many times in his medical check ups – and who has just found herself the sole survivor of a mass shooting within her practice…. and is seemingly being hunted down by Byer’s people too!
Director
Directed by Tony Gilroy, who is part of the Gilroy family (brother of Dan and John).
It is similar to the other films with the action, but way less than what we have seen before.
Cast
Jeremy Renner plays Aaron Cross. He is a sound ‘replacement’ for Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne.
Edward Norton plays Byer, who is set up as a big bad with some of his actions, but he never really has that ‘arrogance’ that we’ve seen in other films. Whether this was a creative choice, or Norton was unhappy with the role?
Rachel Weisz plays Dr Shearing, who also seems miscast, or underused. She is fine, but this feels beneath her abilities.
Scott Glenn returns as CIA director Kramer, and Stacey Keach plays the Director of Operation Outcome. Both are sevearly underused.
Oscar Isaac plays ‘Number 5’ in the Operation, who assists Cross early in the film.
Some other cast of importance include Zelko Ivankek as Dr Foite – who is responsible for the mass shooting at Shearings office, Dennis Boutsikaris, Donna Murphy, and returning cast Joan Allen, Albert Finney, David Strathairn.
Breakdown
Set in the world of Jason Bourne, this shows another point of view of the clusterfk of what occurs behind the scenes at the CIA following the revelation to the world of Treadstone and Blackbriar.
Wanting to avert any more bad press, CIA director and the secret ‘Operation Outcome’ Director call in a consultant to close up shop “by any means” – and by any means – kill everyone that had to do with it.
I like Norton as an actor, and he has done brilliant work in the past, but here he is just so lackluster. When he does “order” the deaths of those he knows (like Cross who he worked with personally on a previous mission) he isn’t convincing in his emotions.
Renner, who is set up as a ‘super soldier’ due to the ‘chems’ he has been taking is unconvincing in the role too. There is zero chemistry between himself and Weisz, who is completely miscast – and this isn’t saying she’s not good enough – the film isn’t good enough for Weisz!
The big down for me was the pacing of the film. Cross and Shearing don’t ‘meet up’ until an hour into proceedings. Their plan (to get him more ‘chems’ from overseas) is only okay, (Cross’ passport forgery, and tricking the guards in the Manila office to let them in (wow thankfully there was someone she knows there!). The chase sequence between the super-soldier (Larx #3) and Cross/Shearing feels like it should of been a mid movie chase sequence not the final boss battle!!! Cross’ detox and crashing from lack of medicine should have happened way sooner too!
There is also no final moment between Byer and Cross – they never even ‘meet’ or converse in ‘present day – there are also some moments that are never explained, like how did Cross find a plane to get to Chicago? He just survives the drone attack, and next minute he’s flying a plane, and next minute heading to Shearing. What made the previous films so great was how Bourne survives and finds his way – this was just lazy writing!
Byer’s team’s investigation into Cross’s whereabouts is poorly written too. Not only do the team feel underused, and less antagonistic – but they run on hunches – and manage to ‘catch up’ to them – even though they are 17 hours ahead at one stage. Ugh. There is also an abundance of convenient news anchor clips, as well as well placed newspapers for characters to discover information – just to help out…. seriously the more I write, the more I hate this movie.
Overall
Clearly this was written in mind for a sequel to be made, as there is little to no hero v villain moments.
With underperforming screenplay, terrible pacing, poor casting (the actress is better than the movie), and cliche overload – this is the worst film in the Bourne franchise so far.
Oh and why can’t we ask about Marta’s house? It’s a nice house!
3/5
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