As soon as the first trailer for this movie dropped, right away it jumped to the top of my hit list of must-see films to watch this year. Excluding Bourne Legacy, I think the Bourne trilogy is one of the best action series of films to date, and I'd recommend those films to anyone who enjoys a quality thought-provoking action thriller. Does Jason Bourne hold up to its predecessors? Unfortunately no.

As a standalone action film, its actually pretty solid. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that Jason Bourne is the best action film this year (obviously not including comic book films). If you're worried the action declined since 2007's Bourne Ultimatum, don't fret, you're still going to see the face-paced action the series is renowned for. You're still going to see how Bourne manages to outwit the CIA again, and again. The one thing that held my attention from the previous films is due to how cunning the protagonist is, and Paul Greengrass delivers exceptionally on that front. The final action sequence, I'd say was more so riveting seeing as it was a personal endeavour for Bourne, rather than some random asset.

However, with that said, where the film falls flat, unfortunately is the plot. Don't get me wrong, I'm agreeing with Chris Stuckmann, Jason Bourne is still leaps and bounds better than Bourne Legacy. Although, the focus of the plot seems to juggle between two things: Bourne trying to unravel a mystery from his past.. aaaand the CIA collaborating with a social network developer for privacy reasons. The latter could have easily been left out and the film would have felt like a genuine addition to the Matt Damon trilogy. You could literally zone out whenever something not involving Bourne was talked about and not miss a beat when you come back to your senses. The two plot points never intersect.

Which is why as a fan of the series, I'm left feeling a bit disappointed. There was really good plot material surrounding Bourne and his past (again), and the film certainly had raw potential to match its predecessors. But was somewhat overshadowed by some other nonessential plot point. Suffice to say it was comparatively a misfire, which seems to be a common concensus as far as I'm concerned.

To come to an abrupt close (I suck at conclusions), I'm torn. As a fan, yes, it was disappointing compared to its predecessors (excluding Bourne Legacy, because that's trash I wish I could erase from my memory). However, as an every day movie-goer, it is a really good action flick. So I'm giving it a 7.5/10. I won't make any personal recommendations, but your time isn't going to be a complete an utter waste. If you're still iching to see a genuinely decent action flick this year, Jason Bourne is your go-to.