Five Reasons Why Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne Is the Best of the Franchise

Photo by Universal Pictures via YouTube / Screenshot

It’s been nearly a decade since Matt Damon last appeared in a Bourne movie, but the actor is finally back as the butt-kicking super spy in Jason Bourne, which hits theaters this weekend.

Once again teaming up The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass, Damon’s amnesia prone rogue agent is better than ever in the franchise’s latest installment. Featuring all the thrilling fight sequences and espionage action that we’ve come to love about the series, the film takes things to an insane new level that should satisfy fans.

Here are five spoiler free reasons why Jason Bourne is the franchise’s best sequel.

1. The fight scenes are flawless.

Like previous Bourne sequels, the latest installment doesn’t skimp on the action and, yes, there are plenty of moments where Damon’s character uses random objects to beat people up. However, this time around, the meticulously crafted fight scenes are sleeker and more grounded in real-world martial arts tactics. That’s why the film’s final beatdown in the third act, which Damon has called “the mother of all Treadstone fights,” comes across as so brutal and visceral, instead of ridiculous and over the top.

2. Damon is surrounded by a superb supporting cast.

The Bourne movies have always featured great actors, but the new sequel may have the best cast yet. Recent Academy Award winner Alicia Vikander is amazing as the intelligent but mysterious cybersecurity agent, while Tommy Lee Jones is perfect as the devious CIA director. Julia Stiles is also back as fan favorite Nicky Parsons.

The only previous film that could match the star power of Jason Bourne would be The Bourne Legacy, which featured Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, and Oscar Isaac. However, that movie just didn’t work (but more on that later).

3. The plot isn’t as convoluted as previous sequels.

If you’re struggling to remember what exactly happened in the original trilogy, you’re not alone. Thankfully, Jason Bourne doesn’t try to make the plot overly complicated, while still providing a ton of exciting and unexpected twists. And even though the film is around two hours long, the pacing of the story doesn’t feel like it’s slogging along at any point. Fans definitely won’t walk away from this flick thinking, “What the heck happened again?”

4. The film updates the franchise to fit the modern digital world.

Although the original Bourne films are still exciting to watch, they haven’t exactly aged well since all of the technology featured feels dated in 2016. The latest sequel appropriately modernizes the franchise without taking away its action-packed soul or the running theme of questioning America’s surveillance state. In a world where every online action is catalogued and categorized, Jason Bourne doesn’t shy away from taking a critical eye to topics like social media and privacy.

5. There’s no Jeremy Renner.

The Avengers star was great as Ben Affleck’s partner in crime in The Town, but unfortunately his turn at helming the Bourne franchise was a complete dud. It’s not his fault that The Bourne Legacy was a snoozer because, at the end of the day, you just can’t make a sequel to this series without Matt Damon.