I had the pleasure of reading The Bourne Identity several years before the first movie installment of this series was made. I thought they did a great job adapting the story to a film set in present day - no small feat given the advancements in spy-type technology. Jason Bourne is fascinating and sympathetic, mysterious and tortured. (and sexy!) But in this most recent film, Jason Bourne is none of these things. (well, ok, he's still sexy!)
The whole movie feels like an ultra-extended alternate ending to the 2nd film. It doesn't stand on it's own and ultimately feels quite pointless. Some very interesting characters, played by some very exceptional actors (Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Albert Finney, Scott Glenn, Chris Cooper) are wasted with inadequate story development. If there was an award for Least Dialogue in a Talkie, then this movie would be a prime contender. Make no mistake - this movie is all about action. They do introduce a new interesting character (Paddy Considine as reporter Simon Ross) but he doesn't make it far - another waste. His story line is snuffed-out, and for what? So we can bring back the meaningless Julia Stiles character again? Boring.
All that said, if a movie is going to be all-action, this IS the way to do it. There's hardly time to blink with all the racing and chasing and satellite-tracking. That makes for a fun ride, I won't deny that, but there's a surprising sense of "That's it?" when you get to the end.
December 2007 - Robyn chimes in: My turn to disagree with Jodi...It only took a few months, but I finally got around to seeing this film on DVD. I was looking forward to seeing this one for a while, as I love the previous two films, and the third did not disappoint. I thought it was action-packed and well paced, with great action scenes (although I was hoping for a better car chase scene). If you're not that familiar with the previous films, there are a few things that you'll miss - overlapping timelines and reminders of previous events make this a great story that dovetails nicely with the first films.
A few bits that are hard to suspend one's disbelief about: there's no way they could run an operation as complex as that and make the silly mistakes they made while chasing Bourne. Also, Julia Stiles - while I thought her inclusion in the story was well placed, I did find it hard to believe that she manages to disappear as effectively as she did, since in all other situations she was clearly clueless about spy tactics - and you never do find out what she tries to get Jason to remember... I also felt that the Albert Finney and Scott Glenn characters were not big enough to justify having such marquee actors in those roles - it was a bit distracting, as I kept waiting to learn more about their involvement. Finney was a bit over the top as the CIA "dad" to all the ultra spies.
Other than those bits, I enjoyed the look, sound and feel of the film. The story is well paced, and great use of camera angles keeps the energy up. Paul Greengrass seems well placed from his experience with United 93 to make a film feel urgent and immediate. Matt Damon is, of course, Matt Damon - as good a Jason Bourne as there could be.
I hope they don't make a fourth film, as that would be stretching the story beyond its lifespan (not to mention typecasting Matt Damon for eternity). While this one left a few loose ends, I think it tied up enough that we can let David Webb go on his way. This will be one that I want to add to my collection, to complete the trilogy, and I look forward to watching them back to back to back in a Bourne marathon one rainy weekend.
1 comment:
My heart beat just as fast in this movie as it did in the previous two installments. I just enjoyed the action and didn't try and put two and two together. In too many cases this fails - not much to be said for Hollywood in general.
--Syb
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