I saw “Jason Bourne” and “Star Trek Beyond” within a couple of days of each other. I came away all mixed up, dizzied by the audio-visuals and disappointed by one of the scripts. Watching these two action blockbusters back to back gave me a distasteful impression of the prevailing action-adventure trend. Too much action! I’m exhausted.
Budget and brain power are focused too heavily on screen content, stuffing the silver with extravagant expenditures, while short shrifting the quill and ink boys in the writer’s cage.
I saw Jason Bourne on opening night. Eyes were ablur following Jason through his endless chases, catches, fist fights and get-aways, usually with his ball cap pulled down. Not much time was given to extended dialogue. Perhaps the JB empire assumes their fans already know Jason, so why waste time developing character?
The script was not purchased from or commissioned to professional screenwriters. Director Paul Greengrass penned this action rollercoaster himself, along with his editor, Christopher Rouse, who had never written a screenplay before. Heck, cameramen can write a blockbuster action film, right?
If you enjoy lengthy chase scenes and crowded, chaotic tableaus with hundreds of extras, you’re in for a marathon: boxing, motorcycle chases up and down the stairways of rioting Athens, kickboxing, cat and mouse foot chases, kickboxing, hails of bullets with toppling stuntmen, globetrotting, boxing and watching an armored SWAT vehicle tearing up the Las Vegas Strip, destroying a hundred cars, with nary a scratch. Winners of the chases are of little consequence.
Background information is tossed in literally and briefly. In the start Bourne is in hiding in the Middle East, making his rent as a backstreet bareknuckle boxer. This significant time in his life is conveyed in one fight scene. Jason knocks out a muscled opponent with a single punch and walks off. That’s it. No more backstreet fights. No backstreet cronies or culture.
It seems the point Greengrass is making is that Jason packs a killer punch. He’s a world-class knuckler. That would be character development. Yet, late in the film in a final duel with The Asset – a skinny, slinking Parisian sent by CIA directors to kill Bourne – our hero lands a dozen solid punches about the Asset’s tiny head and wispy body, and the little man doesn’t go down. The reason: directors wanted a longer fight scene. I found that fight scene to be exciting and a gross violation of foreshadowing.
The Asset we learn through a sentence or two is a disgruntled sharpshooter with a vague grudge against Bourne for some past indiscretion. As a paid CIA assassin, he blithely executes four or five agents with brass approval. It seems extreme.
Heather Lee, the gorgeous female CIA agent and Wozniak-caliber whiz kid, shows a sensitive conscience and defends Jason against termination but for unknown reasons. He’s cute? She read his psych file? Later, her character turns treacherous after a promotion. What’s that message? Promotions kill? Too much action, not enough character, and perpetually dark like “Batman Versus Superman”: a flop.
Wife and I went to see “Star Trek Beyond” on opening night. We enjoyed it more. My core beef is that visually, the endless lack of right angles throughout the film is disorienting. The USS Enterprise is ripped to ragged shreds too early on for it to warrant a spoiler alert, and much of the film takes place in its mangled ruins, climbing floors and walking on walls, as it sits crash-landed on a barren planet of jagged rocks and jumbled trees. My eyes hurt.
The Enterprise is known to employ over 1,000 crewmembers. Only a few dozen survive, all the familiar faces. The attack kills off nearly a thousand unknowns.
The inexplicable transformation of the villain Krall left me hungry for exposition. He begins as a spiny lizard face. For unknown reasons, his spikes slowly disappear until at the end of the film he is human. Why the pointy face? In the end we learn he’s mad because no one rescued him when his starship crashed on the same planet many years ago. His revenge, destroy the entire Federation universe.
Former writer Roberto Orci broke with Paramount just before the shoot, so they turned the “Beyond” script over to Montgomery Scott actor, Simon Pegg. You may remember Simon for penning “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz.” Pegg actually pulled it off, bringing much needed levity to the dialogue.
The constant jagged, ragged sets wore me down, but “Star Trek” works better than “Bourne” because the characters actually talk to each other and reveal their dimensions. Their camaraderie is palatable. You get the impression these guys are good buddies with a respect for quality Scotch and a shared sense of humor and purpose.
Action hero movies are spilling out of Hollywood like popcorn on an iron skillet. And I’m a die-hard fan, willing to sit through them all to find the gems. I’m still waiting to see another film as deeply developed as “Batman Begins” (2005) directed by Christopher Nolan. I can only hope that savvy viewers and free-speaking critics continue to lambast Hollywood for their cardboard characters. In the meantime, I’ll stay home and watch a few more episodes of “Gotham.”

Steve Gibbs is a retired Benicia High School teacher who has written a column for The Herald since 1985.

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