Review: The Bourne Trilogy

I don't usually lump movies together for review, but I'm making an exception in this case, for a number of reasons.

For one thing, I watched all three Bourne movies in relatively quick succession this year. I'd seen Identity once before, but Supremacy and Ultimatum were both new to me this time around. Because of that, the three films have blended together in my head, ever so slightly, as I reflect back on them now.

Another reason to regard them as a whole, at least for the purposes of reviewing them, is the formulaic nature of the films. They really do tend to be cookie-cutter productions, as I imagine the original Robert Ludlum novels were, as well. Each of the movies begins with Jason Bourne experiencing some kind of partial flashback, the significance of which even he doesn't fully understand until late in the proceedings. We learn early in the first installment that he's the result of a blacker-than-black ops program that turned him into a government-sponsored assassin with a photographic memory, heightened reflexes, incredible fighting prowess and an uncanny ability to instantly read any situation he finds himself in, among other, similarly-handy traits. One of the mainstays of each movie, then, is the inevitable scene in which he has to battle his opposite number in the form of yet another product of that same "super-killer" program. It's Bourne versus his mirror image, to the death... or something close to it, anyway. There's also the big reveal at the end, where we (and Bourne) finally discover exactly why he's been wracked by the specific memory fragments that have been shown throughout his travels. And travel he does, to exotic locations like Paris, London, Madrid, Moscow, Tangiers, Berlin and even New York City.

I think in some ways the Bourne movies came along at exactly the right time to maximize their appeal. Superheroes are all the rage in Hollywood right now, after all, and Bourne fits that description rather nicely. Everything about him requires that comic book-ish suspension of disbelief that allows us to believe that a man from a doomed planet can fly, or that one billionaire would choose to fight crime in a bat-costume while another pulls it off by building himself a suit of armour out of missile parts and bailing wire. Bourne might just have found the audience slightly less accepting of his shenanigans if these other heroes weren't out there, helping to soften the ground for all concerned.

As for the individual components of this trilogy, I'd definitely say that each successive chapter seemed less enjoyable than the one before it. I was very impressed with The Bourne Identity, even seeing it for the second time. I thought that the action was very well done, with a nice balance between plot, character and stunts. The romance between Jason (Matt Damon) and Marie (Franka Potente, of Run Lola Run fame) was completely believable to me, and developed slowly enough that I became invested in it. Not that anyone would mistake this picture for a romantic comedy, but within the action genre, the interplay between these two characters worked very well.

The best thing about The Bourne Supremacy was the addition of Joan Allen to the cast. She added an element that had been missing in the original (an authority figure you could empathize with and actually root for) but in most other ways the second Bourne adventure seemed diluted compared to the first. Once the character of Marie was written out early on in the movie, Bourne's single-minded determination to fill in the latest gap in his memory lacked any kind of human backdrop upon which to really care about it. I did love the final scene, though, in which Bourne confronts the daughter of two of his past victims and provides her with some closure.

The Bourne Ultimatum, in comparison, felt somewhat hollow and contrived. Perhaps it's just the fact that it's all just "more of the same" by this point, but I actually found myself bored during parts of Ultimatum. There's also at least one logic gaffe in the plot that took me right out of the experience (the idiotic part in which Bourne actually tells a certain character that he's sitting in the other man's office when there was absolutely no need to, which results in Bourne being chased across the city when he could simply have walked away at his leisure had he just kept his mouth shut) but mostly I'd just grown tired of the sameness and craved a bit of variety. The Julia Stiles character, returning once again ("Nicky Parsons" shows up in all three installments), seemed destined for something more here... only to be sent off to Siberia (figuratively) just when her role finally got interesting (albeit disturbingly similar to Marie's circumstances, two films earlier). Not a terrible film, all things considered, but just as certainly not up to the level of its predecessors.

Overall, I was glad to watch all three, but will probably remember the first one the longest. As an interesting bit of trivia, the 2nd and 3rd films were directed by Paul Greengrass, who was on tap to direct Watchmen before that earlier attempt fell apart. Will Zack Snyder's version of that classic comic book series, in theatres in less than a month now, make us all happy that Greengrass didn't get the chance, or will we be left to wistfully wonder, "What if...?" once we see what Snyder's come up with? Only time will tell, I guess.

Rating (The Bourne Identity): *** 1/2
Rating (The Bourne Supremacy): ***
Rating (The Bourne Ultimatum): ** 1/2