There is a weight and heaviness to being Jason Bourne, nee David Webb, given that your life is constantly being manipulated and/or endangered. Trust doesn’t come easily and those around him tend to get hurt. Through three films, we’ve thrilled to Matt Damon’s interpretation of Robert Ludlum’s espionage hero in part thanks to the excellent filmmaking from directors Paul Greengrass and Doug Liman.

After skipping an installment that shifted the focus to a new agent played by Jeremy Renner, Greengrass and Damon returned this summer with Jason Bourne. Things have changed since 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum as skullduggery has increasingly gone digital so the lengths required to keep secrets buried have to go further. The film, out now from Universal Home Entertainment, explores what all that means.

Bourne has been in hiding these last few years, travelling the world as a bare-knuckled boxer, using physical pain to tamp down the metal anguish he has been dealing with. After all, he knows bits and pieces about his previous life and has questions that haunt him, notably about his father’s involvement.

One of the few people he likes and trusts, Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) unexpectedly turns up with the answers. She has chosen to go rogue, taking stolen data from the CIA, and is on the run in the hopes of exposing the US Government’s dirtiest secrets. Unfortunately, she is also being hunted by a man known as the Asset (Vincent Cassel), kicking off the first of the anticipated action set pieces the series has been known for.

There is globetrotting, there are car chases, there are fistfights, and of courses there are twists and turns. Greengrass keeps things moving, throttling back when we need some exposition and then kicking things back into high gear as Bourne gets closer to the truth and the Asset gets closer to Bourne.

Orchestrating things from Washington is the new CIA director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones), aided by an ambitious and smart analyst Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander). Bourne doesn’t know or trust them (he, like I, miss Joan Allen) and yet, he can’t be rid of them either. All the threads come together in Las Vegas for the final portion of the film and it’s an overly extended assortment of chases, fights, and betrayals.

As a popcorn film, this is a cut above as it offers up thrills and raises topical issues. Bourne is one of the few figures on screen whose mere presence makes other characters truly worried (not something you can say about Superman, Bond, or Optimus Prime). His search for identity continues to propel him and things get explained at last but there are also contrived connections that undercut the drama.

Overall, it’s fun but Bourne never seems to change and grow from these experiences and Washington’s players seem to have traded in their humanity for ambition.

The film is offered in a variety of formats including the latest version of a combo pack: 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and Digital HD (goodbye DVD). Visually, the Blu-ray transfer is very good, which it needs to be considering the constantly changing pace, setting, and lighting. The DTS:X is also very good so you can hear the gun shots, tires screeching, and eavesdropping with clarity.

Damon turns up as host for several of the film’s by-the-numbers special features. There’s Bringing Back Bourne (8:15), a brief overview of how the team reuniting for a new chapter; Bourne to Fight, a three-parter featuring Bare-Knuckle Boxing (7:55), Close Quarters (4:27), and, Underground Rumble (5:59); The Athens Escape (5:37); and the two-part Las Vegas Showdown which focuses on Convention Chaos (6:36) and Shutting Down the Strip (8:24). Overall, you get a sense of the scope and scale of the physical action but the lack of attention to theme and character is actually quite telling.

In the 1970s, there were few genuine heroes on prime time television and even fewer of them were close to being considered “super”. Instead, the three networks fed us giggly television, glossy and empty private eyes, and increasingly silly fare. As a result, our affection for the few genuine heroes is probably enhanced. Over on ABC, there was the Six Million Dollar Man and its spinoff, The Bionic Woman, along with Wonder Woman, for one season before it was moved to CBS. You might consider Kwai Chang Caine from Kung Fu or Carl Kolchak from The Night Stalker, but they lacked what you would consider powers.

Fans, of course, imagined these characters interacting since, after all, they were on the same network, which felt like the same comic book company. Sadly, though, the Amazon Princess’ adventures were during World War II, complicating any such meetings.

By 1977, though, she was having escapades in the present so such thoughts were possible. It just never happened until today when crossovers and mashups were possible. In the wake of fun things like Batman ’66 & Steed and Mrs. Peel¸ Dynamite’s Wonder Woman ‘77 Meets the Bionic Woman arrives today. I can think of no one better suited for the task than Andy Mangels, the most knowledgeable historian of all things Amazonian, who is also an accomplished historian of that era in pop culture.

He’s paired with Judit Tondora, a relatively new artist, with just a handful of credits to date. The basic premise has the world on high alert as a sinister cabal has a weapon and world peace is threatened. So mighty is the threat that rare interagency cooperation is required from the Office of Scientific Intelligence, where Jamie Sommers works as a special operative, and the National Security Bureau, where Wonder Woman slums as agent Diana Prince.

For vague reasons, Prince and Sommers are partnered to provide protection to CASTRA’s theoretical next target, a doctor. Before they can arrive, the building is under attack and in the aftermath, Steve Trevor is now convinced there is a mole in the Inter Agency Defense Command operation. Things blow up, people die, the heroes strut their stuff with accomplished ease but it all seems for naught as CASTRA inches closer to their goal.

As the first in a six part series, the elements, threat, and key players are introduced and we’re off to the races. Mangels characterizes the main cast nicely while everyone else feels straight from central casting. His script is overstuffed and despite the experienced lettering team of Tom Orzechowski and L. Lois Buhalis, the pages are jammed with word balloons.

Tondora gets the heroines looking right but his storytelling needed far stronger art direction so the pages and panels flowed more smoothly. Characters move about in questionable ways and actions in one panel don’t always make sense in the next. Complicating his work is the volume of words and balloons, making attractive page design almost impossible.

These are 22 jam-packed pages that sets things up but maybe we needed a little less opening action and a little more airing out so the characters could do more than trade quips. It’s a promising enough start and maybe these issues will be addressed in subsequent installments.

Director George Miller first thought of Mad Max’s world in black and white terms as far back as the production of The Road Warrior. Now, after the smash success of Mad Max: Fury Road, he has the freedom to explore what that world would really look like. Out today from Warner Home Entertainment is Mad Max: Fury Road Black & Chrome Edition, which you can obtain as a two-disc Blu-ray or find it included in the complete High Octane Collection.

The film is here in its entirety but has been carefully processed in black and white by Miller and chief colorist Eric Whipp. Max’s desolate world of the future looks even bleaker and less welcoming in two colors but, interestingly, the grays, the in-between tones actually allow you to assess characters and situations through fresh eyes.

The story, as mentioned when the theatrical edition was released on disc, is about independence and family, the need to perpetuate the species before things grow too desolate. Max (Tom Hardy) gets involved with the rebellious Furiosa (Charlize Theron) as she escapes with Immortal Joe’s five wives, hoping to bring them to a safe place. Hot on the trail is the most visually impressive array of vehicles ever assembled on land. While it works as a fast-pace chase film, second and third viewings reveal other layers to the story and characters.

The film and all the Blu-ray extras are intact with the sole addition of a new introduction from Miller (1:37).

So, is it worth plunking down more money? It looks good, but different, in monochrome with the same thrills. I’d opt for the complete collection if you lack the other entries in your library otherwise, it will look great under your Christmas tree.

This summer we had some excellent choices for family fare and it boiled down to a contest between an adaptation of a beloved children’s novel and a sequel to a previous blockbuster. It was also a contest in whimsy and effective use of computer technology and in all cases, Pixar’s Finding Dory triumphed over Steven Spielberg’s The BFG.

Spielberg has always had a fondness for childish innocence, capturing their sense of wonder time and again in his films. As a filmmaker, he is always stretching and pushing himself so he can seamlessly go from high adventure in the Indiana Jones films to suspense in Jaws to wonder with E.T. He is always mixing and matching his genres and subject matter but it also means the results can be uneven. The BFG, now out on disc from Walt Disney Home Entertainment, is a bittersweet entry into his oeuvre because it represents the final screenwriting from the late Melissa Mathieson and a magical film that failed to connect with its audience.

The $140 million dollar film was a major misfire at the box office, earning a mere $177 million worldwide. When adapting the works of Roald Dahl, author of such wonders as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and Fantastic Mr. Fox, directors have also been uneven in their successes. This film is based on the 1982 novel, itself an outgrowth of a short story included in Danny, the Champion of the World. In this case, BFG stands for Big Friendly Giant (Mark Rylance) who ventures into the world and is spied by Sophie (Ruby Barnhill), an orphan who can’t sleep. He takes her with him, to protect the secret of his existence, and brings her into his oversized, remarkable world.

Everything is a matter of scale and as big as he is to Sophie, there are nine man-eating giants who belittle the BFG and he needs her help to stop them. Along the way, she realizes he can control dreams, something the insomniac finds fascinating. Reality and the dreamscape are equally explored throughout the film as is the frequently-seen Spielberg theme of family.

It’s engaging and entertaining, but the characters and set pieces are as ephemeral as cotton candy, the magic is weak here, and the overall combination does not thrill as anticipated. We’re not as invested in Sophie or the BFG the same way kids thrilled to Dory. Rylance, in his motion captured form, is sympathetic and likeable but everything around him is just fine, not fantastic. In fact, he just won the Washington D.C. film critics’ award for Best Motion Capture Performance (when will this become an Oscar?).

The amount of CGI involved in this film looked good on screen and the high definition transfer is superb, capturing the colors in their richness, and dazzles on your television. The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack is almost as good, allowing you to enjoy another solid John Williams score.

Given the lackluster public response to the film, it’s little surprise to find an underwhelming assortment of extras found on the Blu-ray disc. The longest and most interesting piece is Bringing the BFG to Life (27:09) with a set of video diaries from Barnhill. There is also The Big Friendly Giant and Me (1:55), Gobblefunk: The Wonderful Words of the BFG (3:16), Giants 101 (4:54), and a touching Melissa Mathieson: A Tribute (5:54).