Game-changing twist brings ‘Jason Bourne’ back on the grid

DAMON. Learns shocking truth behind the “black-ops” program that turned his character into CIA’s one-man killing machine.

MATT DAMON’S fans are in for an action-packed treat with the return of the now older, wiser and angrier rogue CIA agent via Paul Greengrass’ “Jason Bourne,” the fifth installment of the acclaimed spy franchise that compels Bourne to retrace his checkered past. It exposes the increasingly disturbing breaches in our privacy, post-Edward Snowden.

It’s this thematic pertinence that gives Damon and his team a plausible excuse for its amnesiac “hero-antihero” to reemerge from the shadows, get back “on the grid,” and continue to fight the good fight that he thought ended in his favor in 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum.”

If all you want are adrenaline-fueled action sequences that will drive you to the edge of your seat, a stand-alone chase scene on the Vegas strip where more than 170 vehicles are blown to smithereens should do the trick!

That’s par for the course in a suspense-thriller series whose explosions and exhilarating cat-and-mouse chases are just icing on a thematically sumptuous cake.

The hot pursuit that ensues occasionally feels trite and overwrought, but that doesn’t make the movie less entertaining. And Damon’s empathetic presence and thespic confidence keep the story intimate and “relatable.”

This time, Treadstone’s former logistics technician Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) comes to Bourne’s aid after she uncovers the shocking truth behind the “black-ops” program that turned Jason aka David Webb into CIA’s prime, one-man killing machine.

For years, Jason has been haunted by the string of seemingly remorseless acts of espionage and premeditated murder he had volunteered to do. But, the new revelation involving his departed father, CIA analyst Richard Webb (Gregg Henry), who he thought died at the hands of terrorists, becomes the game-changing twist that spurs Bourne to fight back—and put government operative Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander), CIA director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) and his vengeful Ironhand assassin (Vincent Cassel) in their place!

But, does Bourne still have what it takes to turn the situation around—and let his pursuers realize the deadly repercussions of their wayward ways?