DVD Review: The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)–**1/2
DVD Review
When Paul Greengrass took on The Bourne Supremacy there was a kinetic energy, a freshness, that turned the sequel into a better film than the original. Well, lightning doesn’t strike the same franchise twice.
The Bourne Ultimatum may be the smartest film of the bunch, taking aim and finally pulling the trigger on unchecked CIA power. Yet after watching writer Tony Gilroy’s film Michael Clayton, I can’t help but see The Bourne Ultimatum as a lesser work. Sure there’s action, but after three films, I think the audience has grasped the fact that Jason Bourne isn’t going to die at the hands of this CIA.
Full of incompetent, power-tripping right-wingers, this CIA is in panic mode. Specifics on a top secret program known as Blackbriar were leaked to a reporter (Paddy Constantine). The leak needs to be found and the story terminated at all costs. But there’s a problem. Super spy Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is looking for the leak, too. That leak is his last, best chance at finding out about his mysterious past.
Bourne is still on the run, but off the grid (as franchise fans will know). So when he intercepts the reporter who knows the leak’s name, he is put back in the CIA’s sights. The reporter doesn’t quite make it because this CIA can off reporters without anyone finding out who did it. Bourne does escape the scene, as he always does, and continues his global trek to find out his true identity.
Bourne’s encounter with the reporter is the highlight of the film, a tense, well-scripted chase sequence that thankfully doesn’t look like it was filmed with a camera strapped to Damon. Yes, that’s a Greengrass slam. The art of his often unintelligible camera work is lost on me, at least in this film. Like Tim Burton’s inability to tell a story thanks to focusing elsewhere, Greengrass lets his meticulous attention to tense, manic action leave Bourne floundering.
Some action sequences are prolonged long past the point of tolerance, further undercutting Gilroy’s scripting work. And it’s a smart script, one with a story that could have changed from an actioner to a top-notch political thriller if it had been taken out of the realm of the Bourne franchise and out of Greengrass’s hands
Of course, that assumes this CIA is just as frightening when it’s not going up against a super spy like Bourne. The paranoia that Bourne fuels in this CIA just by being Bourne cannot be discounted. Still, the ideas behind the secret Blackbriar program, a program you should learn about only while watching the movie, have the momentum to produce some genuine political thrills.
But with thrills should come drama. The Bourne Ultimatum doesn’t have it, not in a dosage that can effectively make me care whether Bourne ever finds out his true identity. The third and presumably final Bourne film needed to evolve past its predecessors in that respect. Sadly, it never does.
The Bourne Ultimatum, starring Matt Damon, directed by Paul Greengrass, is available on DVD, Tuesday, Dec. 11.
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