The jason bourne movies in sequence
#The jason bourne movies in sequence how to#
Over anything else, Bourne taught Hollywood cinema how to take action seriously.Following the release of The Bourne Identity in 2002, we saw plenty of imitators emerge to take advantage of the kinetic hard-hitting action sequences found in the film, and the influence of Bourne was even felt in the James Bond franchise with Casino Royale, so it's safe to say that Bourne really did change the face of action cinema for a time. When every punch, kick and bullet suddenly had so much more of an impact, a sincere story became paramount to complement this. Whilst Bourne brought a snappy, kinetic pace to how action films were shot, it also inadvertently heralded a more serious attitude to the story at hand. Gone was the flashy smart-talking and blasé attitude to danger, Daniel Craig’s Bond bought an emotional core influenced by its newfound approach to realistic action. Since the trilogy’s ultimatum in 2007, it is well-recognised as a significant milestone in action cinema, inspiring the notable revamp in the style and sophistication of James Bond in 2006’s Casino Royale. Whilst Greengrass went overboard with the method Liman knew how to perfectly utilise the newfound style, creating an evolved action film fit for the more gritty tastes of the 21st century. These small technical aspects make The Bourne Identity a truly innovative action film, combining traditional ways of shooting a fight sequence with a new, snappy ‘shaky-cam’ method. By replicating this authenticity, recording each impactful blow with close-up camera work a coinciding rattle of fist-on-bone, Liman’s fight scenes resonate with the audience, registering as powerful blows instead of fake hollow punches. The Bourne Identity lays the foundation for such a style to flourish later in the trilogy, creating an intensity marked by the chaos that works well to reflect the blurred experience of protagonist Jason Bourne. Greengrass’ approach to action was to recreate its violent experience rather than create a coherent observation of the proceedings. This style certainly heightened as the trilogy continued, escalating when director Paul Greengrass took over on The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, with the final film in the trilogy recording around 3200 shots in its 105-minute runtime. Where action scenes were once captured in wide-angle with most of the body in the frame to improve the clarity of the moment, in The Bourne Identity, they are choppy, swift and nimble thanks to unstable, close up cinematography and a rapidly cut edit. Based on the book by Robert Ludlum, Liman’s film, starring Matt Damon in the lead role, established a stark vision for the future of action set-pieces, capturing hand-to-hand combat with snappy, frenetic energy. The film’s story is ripped from the playbook of action filmmaking, following a man discovered by a fishing boat in the Mediterranean Sea, riddled with bullets and suffering from amnesia, who is forced to evade multiple assassinations whilst regaining recollection of his past. Though come the turn of the millennium, these films would quickly look dated and part of a more innocent time for cinema before the rise of the internet, in its place would grow a far grittier approach to action filmmaking.
#The jason bourne movies in sequence series#
Just look at the Batman series during the 1990s, with Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and Batman & Robin both showing off colourful, cartoony styles to service their eccentric plotlines. Where, in the 1980s, a star-studded male lead would take the helm in a variety of bombastic scenarios, from Die Hard to The Terminator, the 1990s shifted from a focus on an individual star, pumping money instead into an outlandish central plot. Like all genre films, action cinema goes through a constant shift and cycle as tastes change and styles ebb and flow. However, one film would change what we think of the genre at large, the quite brilliant Matt Damon flick, The Bourne Identity. The genre has been so widely plagued by mediocrity that it can be easy to sweep all of the epic titles under its umbrella into the gutter. It’s often difficult to find a welcoming audience for rhetoric on the artistic merit of action movies.