I was most appreciative for the genetics lesson given by Dr. Marta Shearing, during this suspense movie. However, what I really could have used was an organizational chart for all the different top secret departments involved in this story. As you have heard from the movie trailers, Jason Bourne was not the only one; we are introduced to Aaron Cross, played by Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, The Avengers). It was fortunate the studio chose him for this role; another actor may not have been able to make the poorly written story palatable. The writers wove the previous movies’ story lines into this updated version. All I understood was the program that created Jason Bourne and Aaron Cross was under investigation. We first met Aaron out in the wilderness, in the middle of a survival test, unaware of the agency’s troubles. I understood this movie would be more of an introduction for us; however, there was too much of it. Instead of grabbing the viewer’s attention early on, the story plodded along until Cross and Dr. Shearing, played by Rachel Weisz (The Deep Blue Sea, The Brothers Bloom) became the main focus. And lucky for us they were because both of them were strong actors that kept the story going forward. I expected to see more action than what finally came into play in the latter half of the movie. When there were fight scenes, they went by so quickly, I did not know if Aaron ever had a punch land on him. Planning a sequel was certainly on the minds of everyone involved with this film; I just wished they would have cut down on the introductions and given us a clearer, more exciting story.

2 2 /3 stars