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Bourne
Supremacy, The (2004)
Date: 2 August 2004
Summary: The Bourne Supremacy: 5/10
 Ah,
the summer action sequel. It's inevitable, isn't it? With few
exceptions, most of them are generic, mindless movies that
are marketed well enough to get at least $100 million. For
the most part, The Bourne Supremacy fits the bill. It's a
sequel (to 2002's The Bourne Identity), it's released in the
summer, it's generic but not exactly mindless, and it's
marketed well enough to get a good amount of money (although
it needs to get more than expected with the flop of
Thunderbirds for Universal. Based on the series of books by
Robert Ludlum, Supremacy fails where Identity succeeded.
Direction. Identity's director was Doug Liman, known for such
cult favorites as Go and Swingers, which served the first
well with a balance of action and drama. Supremacy's director
is Paul Greengrass, who last did Bloody Sunday. Why they
picked him to direct this sequel that he ruined, I have no
idea.
Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), amnesiac former killer for the
CIA, is being hunted again by the CIA, as he is framed for a
crime he did not commit. He must run to various exotic
locations (which sell Lays potato chips, by the way) to
escape nameless bad guys. Chris Cooper's character, Conklin,
has since died and now Brian Cox takes center stage, showing
what a cool actor he is. Joan Allen (unrecognizable to me)
plays a random worker in the CIA (see also Julia Stiles,
Gabriel Mann).
I think Supremacy is the perfect example of how one thing can
ruin a movie. The choice of using hand-held cameras is
disastrous. Greengrass (who probably is using cameras left
over from Sunday) seems to think that the less of a picture
you can comprehend, the better it is. During the non-action
scenes (much like what annoyed me about Man on Fire), the
camera couldn't keep still for a second, making it hard to
understand what was happening on screen. Why? Although I
understand the want for "authenticity" for the action scenes,
is it really hard to put a camera on a tripod to keep
everything still for a couple seconds? And people thought The
Blair Witch Project was sickening.... Even during the action
scenes, I had no idea what was really happening not only
because of the camera work but also because of the lack of
development of any of the non-important characters. There are
a couple random Russians, a couple random Americans, and they
fight. Why? Who knows?
On the other hand, even though the action scenes are
indecipherable, they were fun to watch. They weren't as fun
as the ones in Identity, but they were worthy nonetheless.
The car chase scene (completely thrown in randomly) wasn't as
energetic as it could have been, and considering the
aforementioned atrocity of the camera, I guess it couldn't
really have been better. Still, during the fight and action
scenes, it was entertaining. The movie as a whole was
tolerable, partially engaging, and never left you bored,
which is good enough, I suppose. It's not constantly
thrilling, but it's not boring.
Damon definitely isn't as into his role as he was in
Identity. He's basically sleepwalking through his role.
Franka Potente has a small role in this one, but she reprises
her role as Marie. Personally, I think she was much better in
Run Lola Run. Hell, it could be the only thing she's great
in. But forget those two. The man on the screen is Brian Cox,
as I've said. This man can do anything, act well, and be
completely cool while he's at it. He's one of the coolest
actors out there besides Ving Rhames, Sam Jackson, and R. Lee
Ermey. But Cox can't save The Bourne Supremacy. It may have
its moments, but add up a whole lot of moments and you'll
barely get a second.
Rated PG-13 for violence and intense action, and for brief
language.
Directed by
Paul Greengrass
Writing credits (WGA)
Robert Ludlum (novel)
Tony Gilroy (screenplay)
Genre: Adventure / Mystery / Thriller / Action / Drama
(more)
Tagline: They should have left him alone. (more)
Plot Outline: When Jason Bourne is framed for a botched CIA
operation he is forced to take up his former life as a
trained assassin to survive.
Cast overview, first billed only:
Matt Damon .... Jason Bourne
Franka Potente .... Marie
Brian Cox .... Ward Abbott
Julia Stiles .... Nicky
Karl Urban .... Kirill
Gabriel Mann .... Danny Zorn
Joan Allen .... Pamela Landy
Marton Csokas .... Jarda
Tom Gallop .... Tom Cronin
John Bedford Lloyd .... Teddy
Ethan Sandler .... Kurt
Michelle Monaghan .... Kim
Karel Roden .... Gretkov
Tomas Arana .... Martin Marshall
Oksana Akinshina .... Irena Neski
(more)
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