Monday, May 4, 2009

Bourne Supremacy(2004)


The Bourne Supremacy

Plot

Robert Ludlum wrote a series of novels in the 1980’s about a secret agent named Jason Bourne with amnesia. In 1988 a TV miniseries was made, and in 2002 Hollywood caught up with the story enough to produce The Bourne Identity as a full film, an excellent film in top-notch form. It has been called the thinking man’s action movie.

Going into the sequel, having never read the books, I was leery of a rehashed plotline and less-than-interesting writing. Turns out I was pleasantly surprised. The characters were authentic from the first one, however they progressed the story well. We are privy to some details of the mystery of Jason Bourne’s identity that he is not, which makes following his questions and actions a little confusing. Thankfully, we get to see the world through Jason’s eyes most of the time, and this brings excitement to the film.

Caution Spoilers Ahead

There is a scene with another agent that did seem gratuitous to the plot, as the character is not set up, but is used as a vehicle for spy-on-spy combat, and a big explosion. The cool girlfriend from the first movie is in this one for a little bit, unfortunately not long enough.

The plot keeps me waiting for the next movie, but in the mean time, can anyone tell me if the movies follow the book plot lines well?

Acting and Casting

Matt Damon really is an excellent actor. He shines in the role of Jason Bourne in the Bourne Identity series. I’m impressed with his physical presence and ability to become a character so thoroughly that the fact that he’s acting becomes obscured. Sometimes the directing got in the way of his acting, by cutting into disconnected scenes which highlighted the fact that all Matt had to do for that scene is jog or something.

Joan Allen plays a CIA chief and she almost single handedly ruined the entire movie. Her acting was very obviously forced, and her rigidity gave an inauthentic feel to her scenes. Did Ludlum write a domineering woman into this role or did Hollywood make changes to suit political correctness?

Julia Stiles gave a better than last time performance. Enough said.

Action

The tunnel sequence was top-notch. In the James Bond series Bond’s coolness takes first seat to realism. In the Bourne series, Jason gets shot, seriously hurt, and his car chases include numerous bang-ups and slam-downs.

The realism doesn’t go too far, however, as tires don’t pop when they ought to, and glass doesn’t hurt like it should. The agent-on-agent fight scenes are edge-of-seat material.

Directing

I really enjoyed the directing style of this film. During action sequences it was so jostled one couldn’t really tell what was going on. This however, gave a very realistic “in-the-fight” effect, which is often tried, seldom accomplished. Think of how the directing style animated the plot in Traffic, and then apply that to the action genre.

There was a lot of footage taken in Moscow, Russia. I wanted to pause the movie for the Moscow skyline panoramas, which looked different that I expected.

Many questions are left unanswered

Does Jason Bourne have a choice as to whether he runs or dies? Will the government stop trying to kill him? Were those killed in the 2nd movie the last of his real enemies? Did Jason Bourne have a nefarious business deal with the Russians?

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