1. The point? - The Bourne Trilogy is probably my favorite film franchise ever. I didn't hate the fourth film. It didn't really add anything to the previous films, but it didn't ruin anything either. However, this film, sort of ruins everything. I was perfectly happy with the end of Ultimatum. It answered just enough questions, without over-explaining or being condescending to the audience. This film, did the exact opposite. We were beaten over the head with answers, that we didn't even ask for. I guess we are supposed to feel closure for Bourne, since he apparently spends his time after Ultimatum joining a fight club (soooo Ryan Atwood of him), where as I liked to believe he was living peacefully on an island somewhere. Also, *spoiler* by the end, he is turned into a cold-blooded murderer. Cool, thanks for ruining one of my favorite characters, assholes!
2. "The Girl" - Never have I ever cringed this much during the course of one movie. The biggest reason for this cringing was the CIA Director (played by Tommy Lee Jones) constantly referring to a CIA agent (played by Alicia Vikander) as "the girl". It's clearly meant to highlight his necessity for being in control and yes, he also refers to Vincent Cassel's character as "the asset" (but that's actually the list for his character name, and Vikander has an actual name in the movie). And, as much as I "get it" (because I was beaten over the head with it. Seriously, he must have said "the girl" at least 20 times), it's still really frustrating to watch a female in power being consistently down-graded as a trivial, weak and naive "girl". The other times I cringed, in case you were wondering: Every time Vikander spoke - her American accent was so stiff; she sounded like a robot (which, for me, lessons my initial thoughts on her excellent performance in Ex Machina), and also, the entire beginning scene with Julia Stiles. Was Julia always a terrible actress, and we just forgave her for it because she was in awesome 90s movies? Is this why she never really took off into A-list status? I was actually horrified by her line delivery here and rooted for her death just so she could get the fuck off of the screen.
3. The Strip scene - The Vegas Strip car-chase scene, that is. This is probably one of the greatest action sequences in the entire franchise. First, they SHUT DOWN the Las Vegas Strip (which, I'm pretty sure has never happened before and must have cost a shit-load of money). Second, the odd choice of a gigantic SWAT vehicle pays off so much the second you see it literally plow through a line of cars. The Bourne chase scenes have often used smaller or sportier cars (or motorcycles) - and have mostly consisted of intensely weaving in and out of traffic and narrowly avoiding death. This final scene is like "fuck it, let's just destroy it all". AND it's awesome to watch. I would recommend watching this movie *just* for this scene alone.
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