Jason Bourne: 10 Reasons It's A Huge Disappointment

Almost a decade after The Bourne Ultimatum hit screens, Matt Damon is back in the role that made him a credible action hero and box office juggernaut, re-teaming with director Paul Greengrass for his fourth go-around as the titular super-spy.

Reviews have been surprisingly mixed given the strongly positive reception to the original trilogy, and though few would call the film bad or an outright failure, it stands as one of the year's biggest disappointments so far.

Far from the water-tight plotting of previous movies, this new entry has to settle for merely being an entertaining and well-acted fireworks display that plays to Greengrass' and Damon's strengths while missing that essential core that made the prior films so beloved. It's certainly watchable enough and is sure to do good business regardless of reviews, but it really should've been much better.

Here are 10 reasons why Jason Bourne is a huge disappointment (with plenty of spoilers)...

The three core Bourne films to date have benefited massively from the consistent presence of Tony Gilroy as screenwriter, who has managed to build a complex yet plausible and easily digested narrative.

This is the first film in the entire franchise without Gilroy writing it, and those duties have instead fallen to director Greengrass, who has only a few scattered writing credits to his name, and the movie's editor Christopher Rouse, who has never written a movie before.

The result is a film that feels much less coherent and cohesive, instead relying on an immense amount of contrivance and convenience to push the story along and get characters where they need to go. From silly little things like Nicky leaving a note on Bourne's bag that says "meet me in 1 hour" to a level of resourcefulness that's unconvincing even for Bourne's standards, it lacks the scarce plausibility of the prior three movies.

Hell, the climax even sees Bourne pick up some nifty spy gadgets at a surveillance convention, for God's sake.