I've always been rather indifferent to the Jason Bourne series. The first movie back in 2002 was ok but it never went beyond an average spy thriller for me. I enjoyed it but it could have been better.
The Bourne Supremacy then improved on the foundations of
The Bourne Identity but director
Paul Greengrass' indulgence with the shaky camera made parts of the film difficult to watch. I've been very vocal in the past about Greengrass' use of such technique. Where I praised the approach for
United 93 as it fit the storytelling and it had a place and reasoning, I just found it annoying in The Bourne Supremacy that I couldn't see what the hell was going on. So 2007 comes, and the trailers for the third movie in the franchise promise much of the same as that shaky camera is back but the movie still looked strong enough and had some really superb reviews that I felt I couldn't afford to miss this movie. And I'm so glad I made the trip.
The Bourne Ultimatum worked for me and it hardly let up. Hell, it's almost a two hour chase scene of a movie. It's
North by Northwest... just at 100mph's per hour and with a pissed off Jason Bourne and I loved it. He's pissed off at the events of the last movie and he's just plain pissed off at the world. He hates being this killing machine and once again he is just trying to find out who the hell he is. In this film we begin to learn with him as he starts putting the pieces together and characters let him into some new info and it's fascinating to see how he takes every new shred of information and how it changes his character. By now,
Matt Damon has grown to a level of acting that I never thought he was capable of ten years ago. In this flick he's every bit the full on action hero but he's not masked by the easy to pull off one-liners like McClane, he has to show his emotion through is face all the time. He hardly has any lines in this movie really, everything must be projected by his face and body language and I'm sure it's a difficult thing to pull off but he manages to do it. It's really hard to imagine anyone else playing this role as smartly or as convincingly as Damon. The shaky camera is still present and at times it's annoying (especially at the very, very, beginning) but I think for this one Greengrass has perfected his craft a little and he withdraws the camera at times for you to get a better sense of what's going on. It's like he took the criticism on board and refined it and I hope
Christopher Nolan does the same thing in
The Dark Knight. You see one of the big problems I had with
Batman Begins was the fight scenes which similarly to The Bourne Supremacy, used a steady cam style which made it difficult to see what was going on. Now I know why Nolan did it, so you would see from the P.O.V. of the thugs at how terrifying Batman is, but when I pay my cash to see a film with the character... I wanna see him kick some ass. Now this movie has an absolutely breathtaking and orgasmic chase/fight scene through the streets of Morocco halfway through the film which is just a mindfuck of greatness. You have Damon jumping through windows and into people's homes and it feels real and never choreographed which makes it all the better. I would be wrong not to bring up an awesome fight scene which matches the great one from
Sean Connery and
Robert Shaw in
From Russia With Love in this flick that is brutal and vicious but Greengrass has perfected his style and goes almost for a montage style of film-making which lets you see exactly what is going on all times. Whilst I was watching it I just kept thinking HELL YES, this is more awesome than any fight scene I've seen in years. Then images suddenly came into my head of Batman and The Joker having an up-close and brutal fight scene like this and I was dreaming of how cool that would be in The Dark Knight and then my mate next to me said "you know, the fight scenes in Batman should be like that". Fucking weird. We were both thinking exactly the same thing. Yes we are both really anticipating The Dark Knight like no other movie but still to be thinking the same thing like must give us hope that Nolan might be planning such a scene in his movie. It's a shame they didn't ditch
Julia Stiles for this one because in truth anyone could have played her role in this movie and she became something of an annoying extra. The rest of the supporting work was really awesome though, especially
David Strathairn who was as cold and 'human-like' as any villain I've seen in this type of movie for a while. Oh how
Live Free or Die Hard could have benefited from his presence. The role of
Paddy Considine though really sets this film in motion for me and if it wasn't for his honest portrayal of a news reporter who has gotten himself way too deep, then I'm not sure this movie would work so well. Funny isn't it that a movie with no special effects, no cheap gimmicks, no over-the-top acting and an intelligent script and approach turns out to be the best film of the year so far. There's something to learn from that statement right there. It's with great sadness that this movie seems set to be the last in the Matt Damon/Paul Greengrass version of the Jason Bourne series. For me, this franchise just got going and for the first time I fully enjoyed a Bourne movie from start to finish and the film left me wanting to see more. Bowing out on top is something that most franchises aren't afforded, and if this is the end then thank you Mr. Greengrass for giving me such a thrilling finale.