I have to admit, I've always thought the Bourne movies(The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy) were moderately entertaining at best. Decent stories, fair acting, mostly effective in the area of well choreographed fight scenes. However, they do share one trait seldom seen in movies today, especially trilogies: each subsequent film is better than the one which came before. Such is definitely the case with The Bourne Ultimatum, which finds Matt Damon once again in the title role of Jason Bourne; a former CIA operative with no recollection of who he is or what his true purpose in life was--but as his own luck would have it, he is a one-man killing machine.
Since the early beginnings of the Bourne series, Matt Damon has grown considerably as an actor. Where once a fresh-faced kid ass-umed the role, now a mature leading man inherits the part, carrying himself with a confidence possessed only perhaps by the most sea-soned veterans of the James Bond films, upon which both Bourne books and films are somewhat patterned after, just with more real world grit to them.
As Ultimatum opens, Bourne finds himself in Russia, being pur-sued by police even as he continues to search for clues as to who he is and where he came from. Eluding the police takes some forceful acts, all of which are non-lethal; director Paul Greengrass makes a subtle but intent point of showing that Bourne never kills law enforce-ment officials. Aside from simply trying to avoid capture, he makes it a priority to attempt elusion rather than confrontation at all times.
The trail of identity breadcrumbs leads Bourne through London, Morocco and ultimately to New York for his final confrontation with both CIA operative Pamela Landy(Joan Allen) and assistant director Noah Vosen(David Strathairn). Scott Glenn is cast in the almost peri-pheral role of CIA director Ezra Kramer, who has tons of secrets to keep about the black ops project Jason was an initial and crucial part of, and is intent on letting Bourne get nowhere near them. He gives Vosen carte blanche to deal with Bourne as he sees fit--a situation which Landy sternly opposes, and which begins to leave her almost as much out of the loop as to what's really going on as Bourne him-self. Julia Stiles returns once more as Nicky Parsons, the young agent who feels some sympathy to Bourne and his plight. The masterful Albert Finney plays Dr. Albert Hirsch, the man most directly respon-sible for the creation of Bourne.
I won't give away too much about the plot, save to say that it holds your attention at every moment, and Matt Damon as always gives his all during the fight scenes. Although there were obviously several very dangerous stunts which Damon would never have been allowed to do himself(and there is one exceptionally brief moment during a rooftop-to-rooftop chase where you can tell it's a stuntman), I have to say it's a pleasure to see an actor actually take the time to learn such intri-cately choreographed scenes, and also that a director such as Greengrass took the love and care to stage several chases on both car and foot using good old-fashioned know-how, rather than lazily rely on CGI as so many directors do today. This proves once again that overly expensive computer graphics are no substitute for talent and ingenuity.
The ending is both satisfying and not. On the one hand, this part of the series comes to a definitive close; we learn Bourne's true name, how and more importantly why he became who he is, and all loose ends are tied up. On the other hand, the door is left open--if only a crack--for a sequel. I'm not as much a fan of sequels like I used to be, since nowadays they generally don't live up to the hype and anticipa-tion. But the Bourne movies have continued to surprise me, especially this one, which is without a doubt the best of the trio. If the producers and Damon can come back one more time with something fresh...I will definitely be willing to take another trip with (real name deleted) again.
You CAN Go Home Again!
The final Bourne movie brings the trilogy to a satisfying conclusion...
Matt Damon hunts down the people who started that Internet rumor about him being Kirk in the next "Star Trek" and got his hopes up!
Your tax dollars at work: the CIA heads use all their advanced resources to locate the nearest Pizza Hut..
"Help me, Matt! I've got to figure out why I'm completely forgettable in every role I play!"
