12/09/09 - The Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007, 115 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0440963/

After taking a food break, my roommate and I continue the Bourne movie marathon by putting in The Bourne Ultimatum. After the disappointing The Bourne Supremacy I was hesitant to be as excited as I was going into The Bourne Identity. Obviously, my mind had tricked me into thinking these movies were better than they really were. However, The Bourne Ultimatum did come out three years later so it was a little fresher in my mind. Still, I began with some trepidation.

The Bourne Ultimatum turns out to begin before The Bourne Supremacy ends. Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) discovers a newspaper reporter Simon Ross (Paddy Considine) is has a source that's telling him about Operation Treadstone and the new Operation Blackbriar. As we progress, we get the return of Pam Landy (Joan Allen) and Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) along with new enemies Noah Vosen (David Strathairm) and Dr. Albert Hirsch (Albert Finney). Jason Bourne ultimately discovers the beginnings of his involvement in the CIA programs right before the film ends.

The acting here remains on par with the other films. The newcomers are actually pretty good, both playing good government style crooks. I will admit they aren't quite on Chris Cooper levels of good but they hold their own. Damon is great in his return to Bourne. Stiles takes on a larger role for this film and does an okay job, but I'm not a huge fan of hers to begin with. And sadly we also get the return of Allen as Landy. I can't make up if I dislike Landy because of Allen or Allen because of Landy. Regardless, this character and the acting here are on equally poor footing as in The Bourne Supremacy.

The problem with the previous film was that I just didn't care about most of the stuff going on and that the shaky camera detracted from a lot of what was going on. For The Bourne Ultimatum we still have the camera problems but a much improved plot in my opinion. This creates more meaningful action and just overall improves everything. The plot features more story than The Bourne Supremacy and attempts to bring stuff back to the beginnings in The Bourne Identity which is great for the whole trilogy arc. For instance, the beginning of the movie features a great sniper sequence in the Waterloo train station in London. It's easily the highlight of the film and is really on par with some of the sequences in the first film.

The real negative here is again Pam Landy. I just hate this character so much. She's completely pointless and here she turns out to be good and even helps Bourne out. She's always angry and yelling and it's just boring. Vosen and Dr. Hirsch serve as good enemies of Bourne, especially Hirsch's character. In a similar vein, I'm not a huge fan of Stiles and with Nicky Parsons expanded role, she somewhat detracts from the movie as well. I really just get the impression that some of these holdover characters were kept in for box office sake but were not really as important to the plot as they possibly were in the original novel.

Overall, I gave this film a 6/10. There's still quite a bit of flaws and it's not as good as the first film but it's a remarkable improvement over The Bourne Supremacy. There's better antagonists and a good blend of action and plot. I really enjoy this film and it serves as a great conclusion to the whole series. As for watching all three movies in one go? It's not a good idea. The disappointing second film hurts the experience and the films just aren't great and amazing enough to warrant doing this adventure again.