Despite The Bourne Legacy and 2016's Jason Bourne lacking the oomph of the Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass originals (they're merely "okay" compared to the gritty class of the first three films), they aren't weak enough to take the shine off the series overall.
The Bourne movies - particularly the latter two entries in the original trilogy from director Paul Greengrass - have experienced a bit of push-back in recent years for popularising the shaky-cam fight-scene trend.
However, Greengrass' frenetic style of filmmaking still looks great, and isn't used as a crutch to mask poorly choreographed action. That said, I do find myself revisiting the Liman original more than Supremacy or Ultimatum. There's a tense, methodical edge to it that I feel better utilises Tony Gilroy and William Blake Herron's script.
Either way, those first three films are all great. Legacy isn't without its charm, and the 2016 Jason Bourne feels totally superfluous as a sequel, but Bourne has never trudged into "bad" movie territory.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
