The Bourne Ultimatum
| Year: | 2007 |
| Studio: | Universal Pictures |
| Director: | Paul Greengrass |
| Producer: | Frank Marshall |
| Writer: | Tony Gilroy/Robert Ludlum |
| Cast: | Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Paddy Considine, Albert Finney |
Critics and audiences the world over went ballistic over the latter two Bourne movies. I thought the second one bordered on boring - a lot of Bourne (Damon) walking around quickly, getting on and off various kinds of public transport and stolen cars and occasionally beating people up or killing them.
So with everyone saying how Paul Greengrass (who helmed Supremacy) had made a razor sharp, thinking filmgoer's action movie, I expected a huge step up.
Yes, there was a lot of clinical, procedural drama courtesy of the power play between Pam (Allen) and Posen (Strathairn) behind the closed doors of Operation Treadstone as they try to bring Bourne in. But as Bourne criss-crosess the globe evading various assassins and falling in with former handler Nicky (Stiles), he does little more than just move around again and the whole thing started to feel tedious to me once more.
The drama and performances were good, and Greengrass - with his docu-drama eye - is the best choice to smarten up a genre with little real-world credibility, but it needs to be more than a fast-moving travelogue with the occasional gritty fight scene. I was much more interested in the goings on among the personalities trying to bring Bourne down than the amnesiac spy himself.
So with everyone saying how Paul Greengrass (who helmed Supremacy) had made a razor sharp, thinking filmgoer's action movie, I expected a huge step up.
Yes, there was a lot of clinical, procedural drama courtesy of the power play between Pam (Allen) and Posen (Strathairn) behind the closed doors of Operation Treadstone as they try to bring Bourne in. But as Bourne criss-crosess the globe evading various assassins and falling in with former handler Nicky (Stiles), he does little more than just move around again and the whole thing started to feel tedious to me once more.
The drama and performances were good, and Greengrass - with his docu-drama eye - is the best choice to smarten up a genre with little real-world credibility, but it needs to be more than a fast-moving travelogue with the occasional gritty fight scene. I was much more interested in the goings on among the personalities trying to bring Bourne down than the amnesiac spy himself.