The spy movie genre has always been an integral part of action cinema and two of the biggest to ever do it were the Mission: Impossible movies, adapted from the TV series of the same name, and the Jason Bourne movies, adapted from the popular novels written by Robert Ludlum.
Both franchises have come to define what audiences expect from modern espionage thrillers with the performances of leading men Tom Cruise and Matt Damon generating their own praise for creating globally-recognized icons. But how have critics responded to each of the movies, and which series is considered better? Let's break down every movie by its score on Metacritic to try and provide an answer.
Jason Bourne (58)
The latest entry in the Bourne franchise saw Matt Damon return to the title role after the movies attempted to spin-off with a new character. Though, as the score reflects, Jason Bourne was less of a hit with critics and fans than the previous movies from Damon and director Paul Greengrass.
The plot finds the eponymous superspy still living off the grid and struggling with his demons when he's roped back into a mad dash for answers when a former acquaintance brings them evidence of a new program built off of the system that Bourne thought he destroyed in the original trilogy.
Mission: Impossible (59)
The first Mission: Impossible movie was not as big a hit with critics as some of the later installments, by Metacritic's calculations, but that clearly never scuppered the franchise's success with general audiences.
Brain De Palma's trademarks as a director were fully on show and proved a potent cocktail when mixed with Cruise's star power and prowess for action sequences.
Mission: Impossible II (59)
Responding similarly to how they did with the original movie, critics were slightly more lukewarm than usual with John Woo's sequel but it, again, remained an iconic action movie from the time period despite its flaws.
Utilizing Woo's distinct personality as an action director much in the same way that the original movie utilized De Palma's flair for psychodrama and suspense, Mission: Impossible II was often seen as ridiculous but rarely boring.
The Bourne Legacy (61)
Jeremy Renner replaces Matt Damon as the lead in this side adventure in the franchise's timeline, taking place mostly in the direct aftermath of the ending of The Bourne Ultimatum.
Franchise screenwriter Tony Gilroy stepped into directing duties for this installment and delivered the action and drama that the series had come to be known for whilst expanding some of the less-explored aspects of the story.
Mission: Impossible III (66)
The Mission: Impossible franchise got its second wind with the inclusion of director J.J. Abrams, who would become famed for his ability to revamp successful movie franchises over the course of the next decade and would stay on as a producer for the following sequels.
The third installment doesn't break the mold in terms of plotting and, if anything, depicts perhaps Abrams' purest representation of stripped-down MacGuffin-centric storytelling, wowing both fans and critics with its breathless style.
The Bourne Identity (68)
The first Bourne movie from director Doug Liman was a welcome change of pace from what spy franchises like James Bond and Mission: Impossible were doing around that same time and presented a much more low-tech and realistic vision of modern espionage.
Bourne himself proved an unusual and rewarding role also for Matt Damon, who became known as a 'thinking person's 007' for his more quiet and pensive take on an action-thriller protagonist.
The Bourne Supremacy (73)
The Bourne Supremacy marked the debut of director Paul Greengrass within the franchise and his penchant for realism, coupled with a famously good working relationship with Damon, allowed the series to truly hit its stride.
Successfully living on the run, Jason Bourne is thrown back into a world of double-crosses and shadowy government conspiracies when framed for an assassination.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (73)
Redefining the Mission: Impossible franchise as a series that would deliver groundbreaking action spectacle on par with the biggest superhero movies, Ghost Protocol set an even higher bar for stunts and sequences in a high-stakes story about a rogue terrorist out to incite nuclear armageddon.
Famed Pixar director Brad Bird brought a perfectly apposite cartoon element to the fourth movie and the emphasis on comedy is perhaps the most winning quality of the newest–and most highly-rated–entries in the continuing story.
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (75)
After changing between distinct directors with every installment and incorporating their unique characteristics, the Mission: Impossible series would finally land on a house style and a go-to director with the fifth movie directed by frequent Tom Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie.
Rogue Nation also introduced a SPECTRE-like group for the heroes of the series to grapple with as well as its own Blofeld-like mastermind to outwit Cruise's hero.
The Bourne Ultimatum (85)
Damon's third Bourne movie and director Paul Greengrass' second, The Bourne Ultimatum proved to be the pinnacle of the series' success with both fans and critics to date.
Now deadset on a mission of revenge against the people that set him down his violent path in the first place, Jason Bourne takes the globetrotting fight back to America for a satisfying blowout in New York City.
Mission: Impossible - Fallout (86)
The latest Mission: Impossible movie was the franchise's biggest hit with audiences and critics yet and tops our list. The sixth movie in the franchise continues plot threads left from the end of Rogue Nation and reintroduces the nuclear threat element of Ghost Protocol for a potent mixture of the series' biggest hits.
The real star of the show this time around, arguably even more so than Cruise himself, was the movie's stunts and choreography which showed that the lead star's daredevil ways were far from finished.