Grade:  B

Director:  Paul Greengrass		Released:  July 2004
Writer:  Tony Gilroy		MPAA Rating:  PG-13
Players:  Matt Damon, Joan Allen, Franka Potente, Brian Cox, Julia Stiles		Running time:  115 minutes

Ratings System

Jason Bourne is back and he still can't remember shit!  The Bourne Supremacy more or less follows the same formula set up in the first film.  Which means Bourne needs to go to location X to find some information.  Upon arriving, someone finds out he's there and dispatches people to "go get him!"  Bourne realizes he is in danger and must escape.  Repeat 5 more times and throw in a car chase and a double-cross and you've got yourself a Jason Bourne movie.

[spoilers, highlight hidden text to read]
There's an event very near the beginning of the film that I did not see coming.  A character was killed off early, and the film benefits greatly from it.  It's nice to see a movie willing to abandon the usual formula to create a new formula of its own.  The death frees Bourne to perform all his spy activity unburdened, which is a good thing for a spy.
[end spoilers]

There's another plot twist later in the film which I didn't see coming.  And that's difficult to do nowadays.  It works because the tone of the film is very straightforward.  Much of that tone is due to Damon's performance.  I liked him more this time than I did in The Bourne Identity, he has snuggled into the role comfortably.

I really like the way the character Jason Bourne is portrayed.  He's smart, and they show him using his smarts as often as his martial arts.  For example, when being chased on foot and looking for a getaway, he stops to check the subway schedule instead of bolting down into the subway hoping for good fortune.  When he takes a guy out, he doesn't just leave them for dead.  He takes something he can use (walkie-talkie), or sets up a trap for when the foe awakes (taps his cell phone).  It's a nice alternative to the James Bond and xXx types who simply wing it and hope for the best with no planning.

I didn't care for the style of the action scenes.  They were filmed with an epileptic shaky-cam, in close-up, obscuring what exactly is going on.  I understand the technique, I just don't like it, it strikes me as lazy filmmaking.  I'd prefer the director take his time choreographing up an interesting chase or fight instead of using such a frenetic technique.

Hopefully in the next film we'll learn more about Bourne and feel a sense of growth regarding the character, instead of the straight-up action film that is The Bourne Supremacy.  By the way, when does the "supremacy" part kick in?

- crocoPuffs