All 5 Bourne Movies Ranked
Over the past couple of months I have re-watched all 5 of the Bourne movies ranked. I enjoy Matt Damon and I enjoy a good action movie, and so the Bourne movies are right up my alley.
5. Jason Bourne: My ranking of the Jason Bourne movies was supposed to come out in January, but I pushed it back because I didn’t want to watch this movie. I saw it twice in the theater and wasn’t a big fan of it, rewatched it 5 ½ years later...and still wasn’t a big fan of it. For years Matt Damon was asked if Jason Bourne would ever return, and he said “only if Paul Greengrass and I came up with a story that worked”, so in 2016 they came back. And the plot doesn’t add much, it's the Jason Bourne formula that the previous Matt Damon lead movies, and didn’t add much to this world. I don’t think they came up with a good enough excuse to bring Jason Bourne back and felt like a first draft idea that they came up with. Beyond that, Alicia Vikander and Riz Ahmed aren’t very interesting additions to this franchise. They are fine but I don’t think they add a whole lot more to this franchise. I think the idea of the Riz Ahmed character could have worked with a better script, but it didn’t feel as developed as I thought it should have been. Overall, a very mediocre and disappointing edition to a great franchise. And I think with a few story fixes (now they are some big story fixes), this could have been a great character study of the Jason Bourne character and a great way to close out Matt Damon’s run as the character.
4. The Bourne Legacy: This is a tough one for me, because I enjoy the cast, the action, and the set-up for the movie. It is nice to do something different in the franchise with a different character, because after a while it can be repetitive. Jeremy Renner I thought did a good job with what he was given, I bought him as the action hero and the confused man trying to figure out what is going on. Getting Edward Norton as the guy from Aaron Cross’s backstory (Cross being Jeremy Renner), is a great casting choice and since he is a great actor, he does a great job. But the rest of the movie, I thought to be pretty boring. The first action scene isn’t until an hour into the movie, than it’s another 20-25 minutes until the next action scene, and then the final showdown in the movie. Also, with the structuring of the story, when the movie ends it just feels like “ok, that just happened”. And the way to describe it is that this movie feels like the pilot episode for a Bourne tv show that never got to finish its season, and that is frustrating when a movie does that. And I think this movie would be better if we got a sequel to this movie, but it’s most likely not happening. Finally, there is a lot of dialogue between Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz talking about what pills Cross needs to take, and so it is boring movie with a pretty weak story.
3. The Bourne Supremacy: A very solid and great sequel to The Bourne Identity, that adds a lot more dynamic and layers to the foundation that was built in the previous movie. I love how the movie starts with Bourne and Marie in India, and the shocking thing that happens and it changed the direction of the franchise. And I thought some of the moments in here where he is spying on Landy and Bourne says “you should rest Pam, you look tired”. And they start trying to figure out where he is. Also, I thought that we got to see Bourne as the spy that we know him as, because the first movie wasn’t really a spy movie mixed with a road trip movie. This is Bourne as a spy going for steam ahead. Where I think this one is the weakest of the original trilogy was I think this is a movie where there are a few to many things going on. You have Bourne being framed, Karl Urban getting involved, the shocking incident that happens in the opening, the investigation into Blackbrair, and Pamela Landy getting involved with it. So a few to many things going on that it feels unfocused at parts in the movie. I think the movie opens very strong and closes very strong, I thought the middle act can drag a little bit in the middle. Where the middle act was a bunch of investigation into what happened in the opening of the movie.
2. The Bourne Identity: A great kick-off to this franchise, and just a great movie in general. This is the Bourne movie that I think moves the fastest and is the most watchable of movies in the franchises. I thought the road trip aspect of the movie worked and I thought Matt Damon had great chemistry with Franka Potente and since Bourne didn’t remember a whole lot about his past he was balanced out with a girl that helps along the way. And thought it worked for the story that they were telling. Doug Liman is great with the action, so I think this movie has the best action of the franchise, where I think Paul Greengrass does too much of the shaky cam with his action. Liman doesn’t do that, he shoots the action in a way where you can see everything that is going on, and it’s not just fists flying everywhere. Chris Cooper I also thought is the best of the agency guys that is trying to get Jason Bourne and I enjoy it whenever Chris Cooper shows in different things. This one is going pretty parallel with my number 1 (which you already know what is), so if I ever re-rank this movie, this movie could be number 1, I love this movie.
1. The Bourne Ultimatum: Like I said this was really tough going between Ultimatum and Identity, but at the end of the day I think Ultimatum does a few more things right. I thought the opening with the reporter and Bourne trying to keep him safe, is maybe the best sequence of the franchise. It's so thrilling and I wish there were more scenes like that in these movies. And also the rooftop chase around the middle of the movie is a fun scene and dynamic. Once again, I wish there were some more scenes like that in the franchise. I have heard some people on the internet and say they don’t like the third act because it goes so much into expedition mode, and not a big action scene to close out this trilogy. I thought it was interesting so I liked it and it thought it worked for the final showdown for this movie, so I don’t have any issues with that sequence. Matt Damon and Julia Stiles have a nice chemistry, and once again some people have complained that Stiles is too one dimensional in this movie, I don’t get that I think she does a good job in this movie. I thought that Pamela Landy was used much better in this movie and she starts to question her choice of joining this group and secretly helping Bourne in this movie. Put the pieces together, you get some great action mixed with some more information about Jason Bourne’s backstory, and you get the best movie of the franchise.
That is my ranking of the 5 Bourne movies. What is your favorite Bourne movie? Also, what are some action franchises you would want me to rank?
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