
So basically, it’s business as usual: a devious old bureaucrat out to punch Bourne’s clock, the taciturn Euro-assassin (Vincent Cassel, wasted) hired to do it and an icy female agent enticed by Jason’s masculine allure. Then there’s a thrusting young agency operative (Alicia Vikander), who’s working to join all the dots. Meanwhile, well-meaning Zuckerberg-alike social media guru (Riz Ahmed) is regretting a devil’s deal he made with bureau director Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones, looking more and more like a meteorite with eyes). But when his old contact Nicky (Julia Stiles) gets in touch promising revelations about Bourne’s father, supposedly murdered by terrorists back in the ’80s, our hero heads to Greece and back into the fray. We reconnect with Jason Bourne on a Rambo-style retreat, punching out muscly chumps for cash in some East European backwater.

They couldn’t just be doing it for the money, could they? Surely, we assumed, they must have a great reason to come back: some incredible twist, some shocking plot development that made this fourth story (not counting Jeremy Renner in ropey spin-off The Bourne Legacy) indispensable.

Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass prompted widespread surprise with their decision to return to the Bourne series, despite the neat closure of trilogy capper The Bourne Ultimatum.
