Why 'Jason Bourne' reminds me of Jay-Z's 'Kingdom Come'

When Jay-Z announced he was retiring from hip-hop after his 2003 landmark Black Album nobody really believed it. It all felt like a part of his career arc, which had been nearly flawless at that point. His fans knew he'd be back, and we expected his return to be triumphant.

When Kingdom Come arrived in 2016, it was a big hit but has come to be seen as the work of rapper who was rusty. Today, it's often ranked as his worst album.

Jason Bourne, the fourth edition in the Matt Damon espionage series, recalls that misstep. Everyone knew that for the right money and with the correct collaborators, Damon would reprise his signature role.

And, for the record, I like Kingdom Come. It's not as horrible as its reputation, but it's not classic either. Jason Bourne has the same staying power.

Just like Kingdom Come had a few bravura songs, Jason Bourne boasts some terrific action sequences -- particularly a Vegas-based car chase that has to been seen to be believed. But, it doesn't reinvigorate the series. Instead, like many critics have surmised, it feels more like a retread.

Which is really disappointing considering the fact that it's been nearly a decade since the last proper Bourne film (the less said about the Jeremy Renner sidebar vehicle, the better). Director Paul Greengrass and Damon could have taken a whole new direction with these movies, but instead, the Bourne character is just as sullen and tortured as he always was. Are we too believe he's still suffering from post-traumatic CIA flashbacks nine years since the last film?

You get the familiar propulsive soundtrack, the chaotic and at times incoherent action scenes that are hyper-kinetically edited, and the tech-savvy techno spies stalking our hero -- this time led by a decrepit looking Tommy Lee Jones and a stunning but soulless Alicia Vikander.

There is a potentially interesting subplot involving a Facebook-like social media site that is, in a way, a front for expansive covert surveillance, but for the most part this is just a simple chase movie on steroids -- which is fine, but not fantastic.

The trailer spoils this scene

It also speaks to what has been a largely disappointing crop of summer movies for me. The trailers have been terrific -- but with very few exceptions, they have not been delivering on the promise. The summer movie that had the goods for me -- Captain America: Civil War -- managed to introduce new and interesting dynamics to a crop of superhero films I truly felt had outlived their creative value.

The same goes for my favorite three films of last year -- Mad Max: Fury Road, The Force Awakens and Creed -- all of which had no business being as amazing as they were, but succeeded by making the old seem new again. Jason Bourne doesn't feel old, necessarily, but it doesn't feel new either. If anything it's more of holding pattern.

It ends on a semi-promising note, which both hints at more Bourne adventures while suggesting that we might finally get to see this character have a little fun for a change. Compared to James Bond and Ethan Hunt, Bourne is the most reluctant (and monosyllabic) of the spy film protagonists -- but part of the joy of watching these characters is they clearly derive a degree of pleasure at being good at what they do.

It would be nice to see Damon, who is really starting to show his age here, release some of the tension and revel in his undeniable bad-assery.