| Overall Grade: |
A- |
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| Story: |
B+ |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
A |
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| Visuals: |
A- |
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Damon Is Bourne To Run One More Time
by Eric (movies profile)
Mar 31, 2008
52
of
62 people found this review helpful
I have a confession: in 2002, when I saw The Bourne Identity, I was disappointed. Being a fan of the original novel (though the second one was terrible), I was hoping for a direct translation. My confession is that I was mistaken. That it took me two years to realize it when I saw the far superior Bourne Supremacy to see the error of my judgment. At that point, I understood that Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass, along with screenwriter Tony Gilroy was developing a new hero for the times, of the times. The novel’s Jason Bourne was of the same stock as another well-known super-spy. What they saw in the amnesic spy was a way to show us a hero who has to live with the knowledge that he’s done terrible things, but damned in the inability to know exactly what they were. Set in the new post-9/11 era where governments don’t even try to hide the atrocities of their crimes and where innocent people are considered collateral damage in the wake of the greater good, Jason Bourne became our own conscience, our beacon of hope towards righteousness.
The Bourne Ultimatum, the third story of Robert Ludlum’s original trilogy (though the movies really don’t even resemble the novels), is a crowning achievement of storytelling. It is both a jolt of morality telling and a rapid-fire entertainment that will put you on-edge at the beginning and keep you there. Bourne is again played by Matt Damon, who has really grown into the role. The movie starts just as the last movie ended, being chased by Russian police, still seeking answers as to who put him into the hole that he’s in. The trail leads him to a London reporter (Paddy Considine) who finds out about an organization called Blackbrier, which is like the meaner younger brother to Bourne’s Treadstone. That group is run by a CIA assistant director (David Stratairn), who wants to see Bourne dead. But also on Bourne’s trail is Pam Landy (Joan Allen), whose pretty sure that Bourne’s not the national security risk that others in the CIA are painting him. But the chase must go on from London to Paris to Madrid to Tangiers with a stopover in Turin and finally (as the ads all love to proclaim), Bourne returns to New York to face off with his former handlers.
The film isn’t as thought provoking as Bourne Supremacy, instead going entirely on raw kinetic energy of the long chase. And this movie is 2 hours of chases, moves and counter-moves, the usual rousting of the locals who get in Bourne’s way. But he’s also got Blackbrier’s agents to worry about who have the same training as he does. But thankfully he has mastered the written word better they have. If you think Bourne’s bad with a magazine, just see what he can do with a cookbook. And let’s not forget the rooftops of Tangiers or the congested streets of New York. One thing I’m very happy to see in the Bourne movies is this element of traffic that sometimes clogs up the chase.
The Bourne films, especially in Ultimatum, work even when they shouldn’t. We believe in these characters, both good and bad. We can see our enemies coming from a bureaucratic authoritorian state as much as Islamic Extremist cult in the Middle East. While some, if not all of the situations Bourne goes through are impossible feats, we want to believe in our man. That’s what makes Matt Damon priceless as Bourne. He doesn’t wink at the audience, nor does he play it too hard. He understands the character underneath the skin and brings him out every time.
And then it’s not a bad thing to back him up with some heavy-hitters like Stratairn and Allen, not to mention the returning Julia Stiles as Nicky, the tech nerd who holds a few of Bourne’s more personal secrets. I love how Stratairn and Allen play off each other, like a good-cop, bad-cop routine folded in on itself. Then there’s a small role for Scott Glenn as the CIA director (at this point I think he’s played every kind of Washington D.C. power player at one time or another)
But the real star is Paul Greengrass; fresh off his perfect United 93 (a gig he got from directing The Bourne Supremacy) and still aching do something different. Along with screenwriter Tony Gilroy and the three other writers who helped, Greengrass has set up a well-designed final act that isn’t about action as it is about consequence. What Bourne learns is something that he must face the rest of his life and at some point accepting it.
Once more, I think I need to talk about John Powell’s score for The Bourne Ultimatum. Powell’s score’s aren’t so much sweeping, but intricate, like a skilled surgeon. Powell understands how to underscore a film without it being showy, something that other composes, even the older horses, don’t understand.
All in all, this is the ultimate chase movie this summer, a sure-fire way to get the adrenaline up for a couple of hours. By the time you come down, you’ll probably want to go again. This time, though, I do recommend that you take a good book with you. Nice and sturdy one, of course. |
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