An intro to the IDENTITY of the series,creating theSUPREMACY and ultimately the ULTIMATUM
Identity - Part I
Director: Doug Liman
Writer: Tony Gilroy, William Blake Herron
Stars: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Clive Owen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Genre: Action, Thriller
Length: 118 minutes
Cinema: 6 September 2002
Country: USA
Is it the first ever movie from Robert Ludlum? No. His labyrinthine thrillers have already attracted the attention of such film makers as John Frankenheimer ("The Holcroft Covenant") and Sam Peckinpah ("The Osterman Weekend"). But Liman takes the cake with this. Narrating the story with ease but not without some hiccups.
"The Bourne Identity" is a fast-paced, unpredictable and edgy yarn that breathes new life into the espionage thriller genre. Liman's secret weapon is Matt Damon who, despite being ten years younger than Ludlum's Jason Bourne, offers an interesting variation on classic spies like Harry Palmer and George Smiley. When we first meet Bourne, he is a half-dead amnesiac (the first such case of the Treadstone program) rescued at sea with no identifying marks beside the bullets in his back and a Swiss bank account number embedded in his hip. Travelling from Marseilles to Zurich to Paris, Jason must work out who he is before the assassins sent by his former employers catch up with him.
The story begins in the water, as our unnamed hero (Matt Damon) lies lifeless in the ocean. He is spotted by a fishing boat and brought aboard. The man looks nearly dead, as the crew doctor removes two bullets from his back, and also something that looks like a miniaturized laser pointer from his hip. Only instead of a little red light, it shoots out the address of a bank in Switzerland. The man, who remembers almost everything except for who he is(one of the very few hiccups of the movie), takes this as his only clue. The boat drops him off, and the doctor even gives him a little money to get to Switzerland.
This is not about trying to stop a nuclear terrorist attack or aliens from taking over the world, but rather a film about a character trying to rebuild. This movie would and have challenged anyone to find better action, better characters, or better acting in a film of the spy genre during the summer of 2002. There he realizes that he is very skilled in the martial arts. When threatened by two Swiss cops, he makes short work of them with a few quick reflexes. The next day he walks into the Swiss bank and gets another surprise. The contents of his cash box are a gun, a stack of passports, and money in US and foreign currency. The most authentic passport there identifies him as Jason Bourne, a man who lives in Paris. The events in Switzerland prompt Bourne to want to know more, but before he can leave, the Swiss cops are all over him. And when he reaches the US embassy for help, even they try to arrest him. So, fleeing with no idea what is going on, Jason meets a woman named Marie (Franka Potente), who agrees to take him to Paris for $20,000.
What Jason doesn't know is that this goes higher than just Swiss cops wanting to arrest him. Back in America, the CIA's Ted Conklin (Chris Cooper) is a man looking to clean up a past hush-hush mission that went awry, and it is obvious that Jason played an essential part in it. Conklin dispatches assassins, he gets Satellite photos of everything Jason and Marie do, he goes into Marie's past life to pinpoint locations where they might hide out, and it soon becomes apparent to Jason that whoever he comes in contact with is in serious jeopardy.
One of the best surprises though comes from the performance by Matt Damon. Not only does he do the stunts at ease, but he also has the tormented hero look that makes the character very compelling. The seriousness and intelligence he shows here makes him a great choice to play Bourne, playing him as a knowledgeable and skilled killer trying not only to stay alive and figure out who he is, but also to regain the humanity that the job made him lose.
It's an original that culminates in a thrilling "Italian Job"-style chase through the streets of Paris in a beaten-up old Mini. By the time it ends you are tired... this particular sequence could be remade in desi as well. Unfortunately there's still an hour to go, and the subsequent diversion into the French countryside conspicuously lacks the energy and pace of what precedes it.
Franka Potente of "Run Lola Run" fame is wasted as Damon's love interest(she hardly does anything apart from rolling her eyes), and it would have been nice to see more of Clive Owen as one of the ruthless killers on Jason's trail. But this is still a sharply written and slickly edited above average blockbuster affair.
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Supremacy- Part II
Director: Paul Greengrass
Amnesia was central to the plotting of the first film, 'The Bourne Identity', and sure enough, while it raced along at a cracking pace, its events proved instantly forgettable, so you can only sympathise with Bourne in this sequel as you and he together struggle to remember his past. Thankfully the screenplay (again by Tony Gilroy) provides enough backstory to remind you of what was significant in the original.
This may come as a disappointment to those anticipating something on the same level as the surprise hit 2002 movie, The Bourne Identity. There's nothing wrong with any of the performances in this movie; it's just that the actors aren't as important as they were two years ago. Action has moved to the fore, shouldering aside plot and character development in order to maintain the frantic pace to hold audience attention.
Bourne, a former assassin for a now disbanded group within the CIA known as Treadstone, now lives on the run with Marie (Franka Potente), but is drawn back into the operative's world of cross and double-cross after being attacked by a no-nonsense assassin (Karl Urban) and framed for the murder of two men who were under the surveillance of the CIA in Berlin. Playing cat-and-mouse with agents from both the pre- and post-Glasnost era, Bourne races to work out what connects him to a long-dead Russian reformist politician named Neski. As he crosses paths with sly old Treadstone colleague Ward Abbott (the always impeccable Brian Cox) and the younger Agent Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), Bourne must decide whether his nightmare past should be avenged or expiated.
After the initial 15 minutes of exposition, The Bourne Supremacy unfolds as a series of long chase and fight sequences. The final chase, in particular, is involving. Coming as late in the movie as it does, there's a sense that it will lead to a resolution (rather than the usual "oops, I lost him"). The director of The Bourne Identity, Doug Liman, was able to present the fight scenes in a clear, no-frills fashion. In The Bourne Supremacy, there are so many cuts and edits that the fights devolve into an incoherent mess.
The culmination of Bourne's revenge spree against the agency, while it accomplishes the task, doesn't offer a good sense of closure. In the title role, Damon again proves that he has the makeup to be a decent action hero. Brian Cox is suitably oily as the bad CIA guy, whose role has been expanded from the first film. Joan Allen brushes up on her ice queen image to give Bourne a more formidable agency adversary than Abbott. There are also brief appearances from familiar faces Potente and Julia Stiles, as well as a small-but-important part for Oksana Akinshina as a Russian girl.
Some viewers may be uncomfortable with the self-serving act of confession with which 'The Bourne Supremacy' ends, reminiscent of a similar, and similarly uncomfortable, scene in 'Born on the Fourth of July', but of course America's secret services are currently having to face their own Vietnam, as their past incompetence, petty rivalries and lack of accountability have come back to haunt them.
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Ultimatum - The last one, or is it?
Ultimatum is the most relentlessly-paced entry in the frenetic series, starting off in mid-action just weeks after The Bourne Supremacy left off. An injured Jason Bourne, a.k.a. David Webb (Damon), escapes from Russia and is making his way through Europe when he reads an article about himself in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.Seeking out the article's author, reporter Simon Ross (Paddy Considine), Bourne knows Ross' source had to be a high-ranking CIA official.
He wants to meet Ross' source not to kill him, but to find out more about his true identity and who made him what he is today. Ross' article threatens to expose the super-secret Blackbriar operation, that makes the previous films' Treadstone ameuterish. The CIA, obviously, doesn't want the bloody truth about what Blackbriar is doing exposed, so they send a team to snatch Ross. The reporter's surprise savior turns out to be Bourne, whom the CIA mistakenly believe is aiding Ross and wants to expose Blackbriar. This leaves Blackbriar boss Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) one option: kill Bourne and anyone else in order to protect the agency. Ross dies.
Once again on the run from the CIA and their "assets," Bourne receives aid from two unlikely sources: CIA personnel Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) and Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), both of whom have their own reasons for helping Bourne.
The Bourne Ultimatum is the simplest of the three films which is refreshing. The premise is tries and tested: The good guy wants to know information the bad guys have, and the bad guys simply want to kill the hero before he can expose them. That clarity is especially helpful since this sequel also utilizes numerous flashbacks to the first two films in order to bring viewers up to speed.
Damon who by now has developed an alter ego named David Webb a.k.a Jason Bourne once again masterfully underplays the character, with intensity that is a coiled spring. Unleashed at an energy that makes you duck.
Breathtaking action scenes and some of the best foot and car chases I have ever seen. Bourne's prolonged bout with CIA asset Desh (Joey Ansah) in Madrid is arguably the most brutal hand-to-hand fight yet in the series, while the car chase between Bourne and another asset, Paz (Edgar Ramirez), is high on steroids. Bourne's superhuman-like ability to shake off almost any injury, blow or crash is utterly ridiculous, although it proves to be a key source of sly humor.
The fact that it's such a well-made film and wraps up the trilogy's loose ends with such style and fun is a fresh and good dessert after heavy eight course dinner.
This is homecoming for Jason Bourne and how! A slam-bang conclusion to one of the most unique and adult action series ever produced by a major studio, and leaves the audience hoping that Matt Damon will reconsider his statement that this is the final Bourne film.
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