The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
Director: Paul Greengrass
Writer: Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns
Starring: Matt Damon, David Strathairn, Joan Allen, Julia Stiles, Scott Glenn, Paddy Considine, Albert Finney
Language: English
Runtime: 115 Minutes
Age Rating: 12A
Genre: Action, Thriller
Reviewed by Ross Miller
Personally I am quite a big fan of the Bourne franchise so far. The films have been pretty much as good as you could expect and the third (presumably and hopefully last) instalment is really no different.
(Possibly spoilers from the previous Bourne films)
The story of this instalment directly carries on the story that has been going on since Identity. Jason Bourne is trying to find out about his own past after being shot and subsequently losing his memory. This time he remembers most of what has previously happened to him and he is after the people who made him what he is.
Armed with most of the knowledge of his past and the death of his girlfriend from the previous film adding to his motivation, Bourne now has nothing to lose and goes full throttle to track down the culprits of everything that has happened to him thus far. The film is pretty much non-stop from the get-go. We hardly ever get a moment to catch our breath before Bourne is back on the move, killing various people, who have been sent to kill him, on the way. That’s one of the main things I admired about this film, and just the character and franchise in general. This isn’t Die Hard or some straight-to-DVD movie starring Sylvester Stallone or Steven Segal. In that after every gunshot or fight scene, Bourne doesn’t feel the need to throw in a cheesy/snappy one-liner to seem cool. Bourne just does what he has to do and then quickly (and efficiently I might add) moves onto the next task. He will stop whoever gets in his way (by killing them or just rendering them immobile) and ultimately get the various jobs done.
Another thing I just loved about this movie was the various locations it was shot in. One minute you are in the heart of London, running through crowds and watching Bourne outsmart whoever’s after him. And then the next minute you will find yourself on the flat rooftops of Tangier, yet again being hunted down. This makes what is effectively just a cat-and-mouse style film that bit more interesting.
A lot of people complained about Supremacy having too much of the shaky cam, which is down to director Paul Greengrass and his liking for using handheld cameras in his movies. I also had a problem with the overuse of the shaky cam technique applied within the second film and before seeing this I had hoped they toned it down a little. I am glad to say, although the same technique is used, that the shaky cam isn’t used as frantically. It was as if Greengrass gave himself and his camera crew a sedative and calmed them all down so that the audience can actually see what is going on instead of it just being a blur of punching and kicking. In my opinion Greengrass is the most talented director at using the “over the shoulder”, handheld camera technique (shown in 2006’s United 93) and here he proves once again how good he is at it. He has this way of using said technique to make you feel like you are right there in the room as a sort of outside observer..whose on the inside. Personally I think Greengrass was the perfect choice to pick up the camera for the rest of the series as he makes what would have been monotonous action into something so much more entertaining and worthwhile.
I have heard a few people say that this instalment is basically just Supremacy all over again only with everything amped up a lot more. And to an extent I can see where they are coming from. There is a lot of the same type of scenes employed here; we have the almost necessary fight sequence in the apartment between Bourne and a assassin of some sort, we have the complicated but smart talking on the phone to the CIA and of course the frantic car chase sequence where Bourne ends up getting crashed into multiple times. And yet I still found all of this and everything else in the movie very satisfying and entertaining to watch. And I really didn’t mind at all that I had seen something similar before. In my eyes they did it different (and better) enough that it didn’t phase me.
The film does have its fair share of problems, as does any movie (especially of this sort). There is a feeling throughout the movie that we could have went more in-depth with some of the technical stuff and also not everything is explained as well as it could have been. Also there is a a lot of names thrown around, a lot faces who I was not sure who they were and some of it does rely on prior knowledge of the first two films. Despite all those things the film has an abundance of strengths that almost make you believe you are watching a perfect action movie. And that its flaws don’t exist.
I had always thought of Damon as more of a talking actor rather than a great action star. Even though I liked him in the first two instalments of this series I still wasn’t 100% convinced. After seeing The Bourne Ultimatum I am fully on-board with him as a fully fledged action star and I can only hope he will continue to make action films as well as his other stuff.
Although not my personal favourite of the franchise it is arguably the best. Despite its flaws this is pretty much as good as a modern-day action movie gets. I may sound like a broken record here but this is by far the best big summer movie (funnily enough it’s the last one) this year and I can happily look on from now to the quality of cinema heading our way in the fall.
