Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what movies I’ve seen over the past week. Below, you will find short reviews of those movies along with a star rating. Full length reviews may come at a later date.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Jason Bourne

The franchise built on Robert Ludlum’s spy character Jason Bourne has been a modestly popular alternative to the slick, polished James Bond franchise. Bourne is gritty and hard-edged. Where Bond focuses on outside threats, Bourne focuses entirely on inside threats. Meeting in the middle is the Mission: Impossible franchise.

By sheer longevity, Bond wins. While its most recent efforts have been lackluster compared to the consistently engaging Mission: Impossible films, the Bourne franchise has been a reliable, if frustrating workhorse. Matt Damon is an enigmatic star. Equally at home in action films as small dramas, Damon brings his own brand of grim determination to the role. He’s a perfect fit for it, but this time out, he’s given even less opportunity to show the audience what he’s good at. The charm, wit, and nobility seem drowned by an incessant return to familiar material.

Director Paul Greengrass returns to the franchise for his third outing. A man more at home with a handheld camera than a Steadicam, Jason Bourne has very few stand-still moments with the camera passively observing. He wants to get us into the action with jittery, chaotic motions that are intercut confusingly. As a result, the audience will struggle to keep track of action within individual scenes. It may heighten the tension of the scene, but without being easier to follow, the viewer may become frustrated with their limited understanding of what’s going on.

On a plot level, Jason Bourne is more predictable than it ever has been. There are few clues early on, fractured memories mostly, but there’s little need as the narrative is overly familiar and the final encounter is exactly what we expected. Sometimes the greatest fun of a spy thriller is the twist near the end that spins the entire film off in an unexpected and welcome direction. Breaking up the point-to-point monotony is crucial for audience enjoyment.