TONY Gilroy and his brother Dan confected this actioner to follow three Jason Bourne films written by Tony and based on novels by Robert Ludlum.

Byer (Edward Norton) heads a secret US Government agency with clout to commandeer the services of other agencies in the US and abroad.

He has terminated a medical research program with devastating potential and decreed that all involved from researchers to clinical studies subjects must be terminated as well. The science seems a bit fanciful, using a virus to transport genetic changes into the human body, supported by medications of varying colours.

Rachael Weisz plays gene researcher Marta, the sole survivor of a massacre of laboratory workers by a government agent. She gets rescued by Aaron (Jeremy Reiner), a soldier first seen trekking alone through some awesomely difficult Alaskan mountains. Aaron is running out of the blue tablets that keep him alive. He hopes to re-stock at the laboratory. The facility holding the tablet stocks is in Manila, where Byer’s minions pursue the pair in an extended chase through midday traffic.

The opening Alaskan scenery is dramatic. The Manila traffic derby is energetic. The infill between those bookends lacks conviction. The film takes 135 minutes to play out, leaving us energised by the action, but little wiser about its purpose than we were at its beginning.

At all cinemas