The Bourne Snooze
Written: Aug 06 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Matt Damon's acting is, as always, top notch, and direction is great
Cons: Serious script problems, poor characterization
The Bottom Line: The Bourne Ultimatum is for the most part a snoozefest with dull characterization and nothing we haven't seen before in the first two movies
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| duke101's Full Review: The Bourne Ultimatum |
There's an old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The problem with that phrase, however, is that even the best formula eventually gets old. Perhaps that's just the problem with The Bourne Ultimatum . Standing on its own, the movie is far superior to the vast majority of blockbuster suspense/action films, due largely to Matt Damon's excellent acting as Jason Bourne and the shaky, realistic tone of the direction throughout the film. But it is impossible to not compare the movie to its two predecessors, upon which there's really nothing new in this movie that we haven't already seen twice before, and at least in the case of the first movie, The Bourne Identity , it was done a whole lot better.
That being said, I can't claim to have not enjoyed myself during the movie's action sequences in which is often trying to save someone from being tracked by a killer or the government, while at the same time trying to avoid detection himself. However, every time one of those action sequences ended, I found myself waiting impatiently for the next one, with absolutely no interest in the plot and characterization in between. It doesn't help matters that the actions scenes were few and far between, even near the end of the movie when the tension level should have been building towards its climax.
Now, it's not as if I need to see mindless explosions and car crashes every five seconds in my suspense movies. However, large portions of the plot focus on characters that we are not given any reason to care about, such as the journalist near the start of the movie, Pamela Landy, the character who was trying to catch Bourne throughout the second film, and who is without any real doubt inevitably going to bring down all the government corruption from the start of the third film, or Julia Stiles' character Nicky Parsons, who does see more characterization in this movie than the prior two, but never connects with either Jason Bourne or the audience the way the main female lead in the first movie, Marie St. Jacques, did.
So all we're left with to care about is Jason Bourne himself. And admittedly, it's hard not to care about learning his past. However, while learning of Jason's past is the main draw and promise of The Bourne Ultimatum , the movie doesn't even deliver on that promise in the end, except to show us one of the methods used to break down Bourne's will and transform him into a killing machine for unspecified reasons. We never get to see who Bourne truly was before his transformation, the people he cared about, what he believed in, nothing (I confess that I have never read the novels to see if they deliver much better in the end, about which I am curious).
Another real problem with characterization is the bad guys in this movie, who are with the sole exception of main corrupt government official Noah Vosen, and I'll get to him in a moment. The fact of the matter is I can't even remember a thing about any of the other bad guys, including the one who was supposedly the main force behind Bourne's original transformation, despite the fact that in the last two movies, we were already told the bad guys were the main people working for the covert project known as Treadstone. It seems that these anonymous whitebread, suit-wearing bad guys are just manufactured for the movie to give us someone to hate when Bourne goes through the motions.
And as for the aforementioned Noah Vosen, who at least sees some characterization other than just picking up a phone and sneering into the camera, he's about as threatening as an accountant in this movie. Granted, he picks up a gun once near the end of the movie, and he callously orders the assassination of anyone who gets in his way, but there's actor Brian Cox's masterful portrayal of the sinister government official, who played that role to perfection not only as the main bad guy in The Bourne Supremacy , but also in the second X-Men movie, with obvious parallels between the programming of Jason Bourne and Wolverine. Quite simply, I just wasn't afraid of Vosen's character in this movie, because Bourne had already faced greater challenges, people who were familiar with Bourne's training and background who knew how he operated, rather than the clueless Vosen who is constantly unable to tell what Bourne will do next.
The movie also suffers from certain plotholes that I found impossible to ignore. For instance, near the end of the movie, one of the anonymous bad guys speaks of Webb's transformation into Jason Bourne, in which Webb assumed that identity. However, in the first movie, it was clearly portrayed that Matt Damon's character, who did not know his name, simply assumed the name Bourne from one of many identities that he had identification for. Now we are led to believe that Bourne has always been his primary identity from the start.
The screenwriters also seem to have conveniently forgotten that in the second movie, Bourne killed the last of the specially trained operatives like himself, but without any explanation, the government has already managed to in hardly any time at all train a new operative named Desh, who seems more skilled than Bourne himself during a prolonged action sequence. I understand the film needed that sequence, which kept me awake and was one of the most thrilling parts of the movie, but it would be nice to have some explanation for the random bad guys thrown at Borne over and over again.
Script problems aside, I must say that the direction and Matt Damon's acting are phenomenal, and save the movie from getting just one star. As always, Matt Damon is believable as a character completely in control of every situation, who never makes a false step, unless it's intentional. Furthermore, the direction almost helped me forget how little I cared about the story throughout most of the film that I left thinking the movie wasn't so bad, until I really got to thinking about it.
And in truth, the movie doesn't leave a bad taste in your mouth like so many other mindless action/suspense films. Without a doubt, for some relatively meaningless fun of watching Bourne beat up all the bad guys in cool ways, this is a great summer movie. But if you expect something a little more, like I did after the first two films, then you will be somewhat disappointed. Just like a pretty and polished pop song that sounds catchy the first time you hear it, but without any real substance, The Bourne Ultimatum will not only not warrant repeated viewings, but is also only worth the price of admission to see a couple good action sequences.
Recommended:
No
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Pacing
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Epinions.com ID:
duke101
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Member: Adam
Reviews written: 174
Trusted by: 16 members
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