Throwback Thursday Review: 'The Bourne Identity'

This week I begin reviewing the Bourne series with the first installment in the franchise leading up to the fifth still untitled Bourne film, which will be released on July 29, 2016. I have spaced out my reviews on these films throughout 2016 and will be reviewing one every other month so my next Bourne review will be in March over The Bourne Supremacy. In a few weeks I will unveil my entire Throwback Thursday Review schedule that I have mapped out for the year in my blog's second anniversary post. The next two weeks of Throwback Thursday Reviews will be for Kung Fu Panda and Kung Fu Panda 2 leading up to Kung Fu Panda 3.

'The Bourne Identity' Review

The Bourne Identity is the first amongst the Bourne franchise, that takes the spy genre and injects it with steroids giving the film high energy action and extremely well coordinated stunt work. It's clear to me that the Bourne films were a great source of inspiration for the Daniel Craig led Bond flicks in regards to changing the genre and making the action more gritty and realized. Doug Liman directs as he dips his toes into the action genre, only to later direct Edge Of Tomorrow, and he does a fine job but doesn't quite bring any of his own vision into the film as more a laid-back director who wants to allow the film to speak for itself. Matt Damon steps into his first action hero performance and manages to craft a new hero that is the ultimate spy. Damon's best moments to shine are when Jason Bourne is discovering himself and the high energy action to which he's quite involved in. Franka Potente serves purely to be Bourne's love interest and she doesn't quite deliver as their chemistry seemed quite awkward throughout the film and it's once her character exits the story for a bit when the story picks up. The film's antagonist is essentially the CIA, who created Bourne and want to retrieve him. They send one of their own agents, The Professor, to take Bourne down. The Professor played by Clive Owens makes for a great physical threat due to his training which matches Bourne while Ted Conklin, portrayed by Chris Cooper, makes for a great verbal sparring partner for Bourne towards the end of the film when they have a confrontation. I would have preferred the screenplay found a way to morph those characters together to create one menacing agent who can "talk the talk and walk the walk" demonstrating a wide skill set and making for a compelling villain rather than two separate characters who lack the other's traits. At face value The Bourne Identity is a thrilling action popcorn flick and unfortunately never dives much deeper than that, with little charm or substance to match the energized action sequences.

Film Assessment: B-