BETWEEN them, Robert Ludlum (four titles) and Eric Van Lustbader (the rest) have published 13 novels featuring Jason Bourne as their hero.

Co-written (with Christopher Rouse) and directed by Paul Greengrass, this is Matt Damon’s fifth time playing him. The actor is okay, the character is something of an over-statement. The film is a futurist actioner set in the present – if that sounds whacky, five minutes looking at the film will clarify it.

Since last seen, Bourne has been earning his living as a bare-knuckle boxer in Greece, where austerity has become a memory. The film segues into a drawn out open-air night chase when back in Foggy Bottom, CIA director Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones being laconic) sends field agents to stop Bourne and his former colleague Nicky from doing something Wikileakish involving Bourne’s mysterious father.

That chase occupies the rest of the film, across eastern Europe, London and Las Vegas. Greengrass’ screenplay is short on dialogue, big on movement and action. Barry Ackroyd’s cinematography melded with Christopher Rouse’s editing may be a technical tour de force, delivering nearly two hours of flicky images that may induce headache or sleepiness in some filmgoers. But hopefully it won’t become fashionable.

Arty crafty can have unexpected consequences. The film could have expressed its intentions quite well if the camera had been less determined to become a player when presenting them. I watched it all the way to the end titles. But I admit to a mote of surprise when the lady who cleans the cinema tapped me on the shoulder and said: “Film’s over, sir.” There’s a first time for everything.

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