The Downfall of the Jason Bourne Franchise

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In 2006, Director Doug Limon introduced the world to Jason Bourne, based on the spy novel series of Robert Ludlum. An amnesiac who turned out to be the world's deadliest assassin, Bourne was by far the most badass cinematic action hero of the modern era. Similar to Batman and James Bond, his body and mind were honed to peak human levels, but unlike Batman or Bond, he didn't gadgets or sidekicks. He could take on the United States Intelligence Community all by himself, using nothing more than improvised books and pens, the truest epitome of a one man army. In the Bourne Identity, and it's Paul Greengrass-directed sequels, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, we followed Jason Bourne as he evaded the government's of numerous countries in the hunt find out the truth of his identity, and for years The Bourne Trilogy was known as one of the greatest action trilogies in cinematic history.

However, in recent years, the Bourne franchise has entered a slump, with sub par entries of The Bourne Legacy and Jason Bourne, both of which massively disappointed fans of the franchise. Now with Matt Damon saying that he is seemingly finished with the role, the question must be asked what fuck happened to the Bourne franchise?  In this analysis, we are going to take a look at what techniques makes Jason Bourne such an compelling action hero, and why the latter two films of the franchise failed to utilize these techniques, leading to underwhelming films

The Pinnacle of Human Conditioning

As stated, by far the most admirable trait of Bourne is his superheroic omnicompetence and ability to adapt to any scenario. Described as a $30 million dollar weapon, he has been rigorously trained to operate at the peak of Human performance at all time. Whether it's observation, improvisation, fighting, driving, electronics, or being multilingual, Bourne seems to have been trained in literally every field imaginable to perform any task imaginable, like a physical Ubermensch. What makes it even better is that we see Bourne use these skills against the world's most highly advanced governments, who despite their authority and surveillance, are helpless to stop him when he opposes them.  There is truly no limit to what Jason Bourne can do, and this makes him the ultimate invincible superman.

Fight with an Equal Foe

To help cement Jason Bourne’s status as the deadliest killing machine to ever walk the planet, every Jason Bourne film features as least one close-quarters-combat fight with a highly trained assassin who is supposed to be Jason’s equal, or in the case of his most famous opponent, Desh Bouksani, his superior. Jason Bourne’s agile speed, efficient strikes, and resourceful improvisation, combined with his ability to face inferior, equal, and superior opponents, make the Bourne series fight scenes some of the greatest of the action genre and one of the most appealing aspects of the Bourne films.

Amnesia= The Ultimate Audience Surrogate

What makes Bourne even more enjoyable to watch is his amnesia, which allows us the audience to use him as out audience surrogate, as we know just about as much about him as he does. He is a true blank slate upon which the audience can project themselves, which combined with his omnicompetence, makes him the ultimate escapist character.

The Bourne Legacy: Drug Addicts Dont Make Good Action Heroes

In 2014, 7 years after the release of The Bourne Ultimatum, a new film in the Bourne franchise was released entitled The Bourne Legacy, directed by Bourne Trilogy writer Tony Gilroy. The trailers seemed promising, showing the new adventures of super assassin Aaron Cross, portrayed by Jeremy Renner, an agent whom the trailers fooled audiences into believing was "better than Treadstone and Blackbriar combined".

However, the final result proved to be  a massive disappointment. The film had a horribly paced 3 act structure, multiple unnecessary scenes, and underwhelming action. Aaron Cross was not physically and mentally trained like Jason Bourne, but instead received his physical and mental prowess from pills, like a Poor Man's Captain America.

Like all bad sequels, The Bourne Legacy also ruins the continuity of the original trilogy, bringing back Pamela Landy and Noah Vosen just so that Vosen can go free and Landy can be arrested, completely ruining the climax of The Bourne Ultimatum under the pretense of a shock value plot twist.

Perhaps worst of all was LARX, who may well be the most underwhelming villain in cinematic history. The film built up LARX as the ultimate badass threat, being the combination of Treadstone and Blackbriar that was mentioned in the trailers. However, rather than getting an epic Close Quarters Combat fight like we did in all of the prior Bourne films, LARX is instead killed not by Aaron Cross, but by Rachel Weiss kicking him off his bike. Are you fucking kidding me? Have you seen the Bourne films, Tony Gilroy? Do you understand their structure? Why the fuck did LARX not fight Aaron Cross? As stated above, the Hand to hand fights between super assassins are one of the main appeals of this franchise. I could have even forgiven Aaron being a druggie if the film at least had a decent climax. But no, the film ends rather abruptly, with Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weiss sailing into the unknown land of Zero Sequels

I found the Bourne Legacy to be massively disappointing, and apparently other Bourne fans did as well, given that there has been no talk of continuing the Aaron Cross saga

Jason Bourne 2016: An Underwhelming Retread

In 2016, a miracle seemed to be happening. During the Super Bowl, we got the first trailer for Jason Bourne. The trailer showed Bourne knocking out opponents and racing down Vegas, and the trailer seemed to imply that this time, Bourne would be working with the Government to stop terrorists, similar to how Rambo went from fighting the Government to helping them. Myself and other Bourne fans were hyped, and we couldn't wait to see the next chapter in the Bourne franchise.

Once again, however, the final result was a massive disappointment. Rather than revamping the plot, Bourne 2016 was a clearly lazy rehash of the original trilogy, with Bourne once again drawn out of hiding and once again going against CIA surveillance teams and assassins. This time, however, his reasoning for being drawn out, a conspiracy involving his father, seemed extremely contrived. 

Longtime fan favorite Nicky Parsons is killed purely for shock value, and the film is bogged down by a unnecessary subplot about a tech mogul who is going to be assassinated for speaking out against government surveillance. Tommy Lee Jones gives one of the most phoned in performances in cinematic history. The climatic Vegas car chase is unbelievably ridiculous beyond suspension of disbelief, and the final fight between Matt Damon and Vincent Castel is muddled by the combination of shaky can and dark lighting.  While there are some good aspects to the film, such as Alicia Vikander, who tries her best with a subpar script, and the exciting Athens sequence, all in all Bourne 2016 was massively underwhelming.

The Future of The Bourne Franchise: Will It And Should It Have One?

After Bourne 2016 was critically lambasted, it seems that both Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon have permanently stepped away from the Bourne franchise, citing a lack of any good story ideas. This is seems to be both a curse and a blessing, as while it will be disappointing not to see anymore of Bourne and his omnicompetence, perhaps it is best for the franchise to retire itself if it has truly run out of creative steam. As stated, I think a Jason Bourne film about him teaming up with the government to fight terrorists or black marketeers would be an exciting direction for the series to take, but then again, with Pamela Landy arrested and Nicky Parsons dead, perhaps it is best for Bourne to finally disappear into the wind for good.

What do you think? Should Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass start brainstorming more movies? Should they leave the franchise alone? Should we give Aaron Cross another chance? You judge, you decide, like comment, and subscribe.