Jason Bourne

Last night, I took Becky and Dorie to see the new Jason Bourne movie.  We’ve always been fans of that series and Dorie wanted to see this over the other new releases that are out.  I think it was a good movie.

Emphasis on the word “think.”

Matt Damon picked up the Bourne role and ran with it.  He and the other actors delivered good dialogue and this new facet of the Bourne story was put together pretty well.  I can’t tell you much about the action or fight sequences.  Really I can’t tell you much about the movie visually.

I’m pretty sure they let a herd of 100 year old Parkinson’s patients film the movie after they had consumed several gallons of espresso.  Yes, this movie used the “shaky cam” technique.  Everywhere.  Every scene employed shaky cam.

This doesn’t work for me.  Especially on the big screen.  You can’t tell at all what’s going on.  In fact, a couple of times I had to look away for a minute because I could feel the beginnings of a headache forming.

It wasn’t just me.  Dorie immediately leaned over and commented about it.  This method of filmography ruined the movie for all three of us.

Now, the question is this.  Why film it this way.  I don’t recall the other Bourne movies employing this technique.  Did the director actually think this was a good approach?  Maybe, through all the shakiness and blur, they were covering something up?  Hmmm…

Matt Damon is 45 years old.  Just three years younger than me.  I’m guessing that he can’t do the “Bourne” stuff as well as he could a few years ago.  Maybe the shaky cam was used to cover up his fight scenes.  Now that I’ve had some time to consider it, the caffeine saturated, tremor plagued, 100 year old camera operators were at their “best” during the fight scenes.  It was a blur of action.  Maybe it wasn’t actually Matt Damon in those scenes at all.  Maybe it was him, but he was moving so slow that they needed to cover it.

Whatever the case, I was disappointed.  I’ll probably give this one another shot when it comes out for home use.  Maybe the shaky cam will be better on a small screen.

Maybe if I drink enough espresso before watching it, my own tremors can sync with the video and I’ll be able to tell what’s going on.

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