“The Serpent” (** out of four) was a passable political thriller about a top-secret C.I.A. agent (Gia Skova) who is given an international covert assignment but subsequently finds out she has been double-crossed by her own government and some renegade agents (Travis Aaron Wade, Jason Scott Jenkins, and others) and has to outsmart everyone to stay alive. Uneven mix of espionage intrigue and pulp action melodrama jumpstarts occasionally but never quite catches fire. Yet another “Bourne” imitation that comes up short. Skova also wrote and directed.