The Boring Ultimatum
Written: Aug 06 '07 (Updated Aug 06 '07)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Bang For The Buck |
 |
|
|
Pros: Fans of Matt Damon will still like it.
Cons: Not enough of what made the first two Bourne movies a hit.
The Bottom Line: I definitely would not pay full price for this one. And maybe you should wait for DVD, even if you are a fan.
|
|
|
| dad-daughters's Full Review: The Bourne Ultimatum |
First, before the hordes of Bourne movie fans appear at my gate with torches and pitchforks screaming "kill the monster", I know the title is a bit harsh. I'll say it right up front... I am a big Matt Damon fan, and I loved the earlier movies. But as to the "boring" part, I can back it up with anecdotal evidence later on.
My wife and I forked out $18.00 to go to this movie (no special matinee rates) so you know I really wanted to like it. But the opening scene, of Jason Bourne running from Russian police for reasons that are unclear, then trying to find a clinic and injecting his mouth with a hypo for reasons that are unclear, just didn't work for me as a way to start an exciting adventure.
Let me say that the Bourne movies in general work because they tap into a common experience: asking the question "who am I". We all have an identity based on our past experiences, made stronger by our interactions with others. Basically our sense of self is partly what we are born with, and partly what are are born into. In a broad sense, we are all brainwashed from birth. Jason Bourne is someone who's identity has been taken from him, but his character remains intact. His quest for self-knowledge is as old as the classics we were taught in college. The broader appeal of these movies is the intense action and exotic international locales.
In my opinion, the previous two movies worked better because there was a personal drama that was weaved into the action. In the first Bourne Identity, we had Marie (played by Franka Potente) to enrich and develop the complex nature of our star, Jason Bourne. Having someone to protect and to talk to helps the audience bond with both of them. This love relationship is correctly carried on to the next installment, the Bourne Supremacy. Marie's murder early in the film sends Jason on a quest to exact revenge. He meets Nicky (Julia Stiles), who provides a new and different person to develop his character and help his quest for knowledge. I found their performances engaging.
But in this installment, Julia Stiles is an awkward afterthought, and lacks the emotional connection necessary to make the viewer care about this relationship. She suddenly appears late in the film in an office of a CIA station chief who has flown the coop. From that point, her dialogue and emotional involvement is minimal. After sacrificing her normal existence for a life sentence on the run, Bourne simply drops her at a bus station telling her "it gets easier in time". I found myself wondering why she was reintroduced at all.
The other thing that bothered me was the over-the-top presentation of the CIA (and by association, our bad, bad U.S. government) as evil and corrupt. The character played by Scott Glenn (another favorite of mine) is so irresponsible in ordering hits of anyone and everyone that he becomes a caricature. He has no apparent conscience, and it would have been more interesting to see some type of moral dilemma or true discussion about why killing might be justified.
My anectodal evidence that the film was boring is as follows: the wife fell asleep (even during some of the chase scenes). Two people in my aisle (teenage girls, not old geezers) were nodding off. People were fidgeting throughout the theater in all but the most riveting action scenes.
I assure you there is no spoiler here, but the big payoff of this movie was supposed to be how we finally discover who Jason really is. But even that was anticlimactic, in that the story was simply told by the old CIA psychiatrist with bland flashbacks to tie it up. What I really wanted to see was much more of what they did to him. perhaps a bit of seeing who he was (his prior life). Yes, we see the "waterboarding" flashbacks, but there must have been more interesting stuff to this brainwashing method.
Finally, my last gripe is the off the chart use of what I call the "UnsteadyCam". Fans of Law and Order and NYPD Blue will know what I mean. The camera is always moving, as if manned by a drunk. But in this movie, the effect was almost enough to cause motion sickness. There may not have been one unmoving shot.
Yes, the fight scenes were great, but nothing we haven't seen before. Yes, the car chase scenes were exciting, but nothing we haven't seen before. Yes, it was interesting to see intriguing scenes in Europe. But the lack of any foil for our hero made the movie seem empty, and little more than a series of mostly unrelated action scenes, capped by an anticlimax of finding out who Jason Bourne really is. And after finding out, I realized to my surprise that I didn't care.
Recommended:
No
Movie Mood: Action Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Script
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
dad-daughters
|
|
Member: Dan
Location: Southern California USA
Reviews written: 79
Trusted by: 29 members
About Me:
Finally, my reviews outnumber my age...
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.