The Bourne Ultimatum
Friday, 17 Aug 2007 08:55
Bourne is back
Directed by Paul Greengrass, out now, starring Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn and Joan Allen, running time 111 minutes....
In a nutshell…
Bourne to run
What's it all about?
Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) returns for the third in the spy-thriller series, and it's very much a case of more of the same – the former CIA operative is still engaged in the delicate balancing act of trying to track down his former employers while simultaneously evading their relentless attempts to have him killed.
Still injured from the final scenes of the Bourne Supremacy, the hitman soon finds himself seeking assistance from a humble journalist as he attempts to find out about a CIA project named Blackbriar that could help him piece together more of his past.
Never one to be undone by geography, or anything else for that matter, the globetrotting Bourne heads from Moscow to London, Madrid, Tangiers and New York as part of his quest, each of which plays host to the customary unrelenting action setpieces as well as numerous headsplitting, audience-enlightening flashbacks that Bourne still suffers from.
Who's in it?
Matt Damon again turns in another utterly convincing performance as the stonefaced Bourne, leaving you in little doubt that he's a trained killer intently focused on his goal. But the most convincing aspect of his work is in successfully relaying the confusion that lies behind the furrowed brow. Despite the continual barrage of information both concealed and passed on by Ultimatum's variety of shadowy government figures, thanks to Damon the film could work almost as well in a wordless format.
Elsewhere, more sympathetic characters such as Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) and Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) return to provide some balance to the CIA's decidedly anti-Bourne agenda, but the film is really played out on the level of man versus the all-seeing, all-knowing government monolith, able to trace all calls and monitor all movement at the drop of a hat.
As an example…
"Our target is a British national - Simon Ross, a reporter. I want all his phones, his BlackBerry, his apartment, his car, bank accounts, credit cards, travel patterns - I want to know what he's going to think before he does," Big Brother writ large as CIA deputy director David Strathaim (Noah Vosen) mobilises his forces
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
As past Oscar favourites, Damon and director Paul Greengrass have proved themselves to be box-office hits with their work on the Bourne franchise, but the major gongs seem likely to elude them given the film's necessary rejection of Academy-friendly sentiment in favour of unfettered adrenaline.
What the others say
"This is the payoff Bourne fans have been waiting for and the standard to which future blockbusters should be held." – James Dyer, Empire
"Greengrass remains ahead of the field in delivering gristly, handheld, relatively credible action reliant on whatever’s to hand rather than hi-tech gadgetry." – Ben Walters, Time Out.
So is it any good?
Paul Greengrass again shows why his fitful shooting style is so suited to the series, matching split-second takes that constantly threaten to overwhelm the action with Bourne's own fractured state of mind. It's a good thing too, as in terms of narrative the story has little further to go, the first two films having largely already revealed how Bourne came to land himself in his unique predicament.
It may follow a well-worn path, but the film's non-stop action is so compelling that you'd have to be dosed up on several vats worth of morphine to not get caught up in the ride. One early scene in particular seems to do for Waterloo Station what the minotaur did for the labyrinth as Bourne and a journalist attempt to evade detection in among the snaking hordes of commuters.
As the film progresses, the tension continues to be cranked up through more maze-like forays around the roads, pavements and rooftops of Tangiers before the final confrontation on the CIA's home patch in New York, and even then doesn't threaten to let up for a moment. It's rare that sheer unadulterated thrills manage to sustain a film for its entire running time, but the Bourne Ultimatum is undoubtedly a breakneck triumph.
8/10
Dan Jones
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