The Bourne Ultimatum – Worth A Cinema Trip?
Many have said this is the summer of threes, the third instalments of the franchises that were ‘Shrek’, ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. What
has typically been the dumping-ground for movies, August, has for once provided a real eye opener.
The Bourne Ultimatum is a superb film, the third in the Bourne saga, following a superspy (Jason Bourne played by Matt Damon) who is constantly on the
run, whilst at the same time desperately trying to understand his shady past. This movie gets you wondering who the actual villains are, as it becomes clear
that Jason Bourne may well have dodgy morals, evident in part by the fact he is so adept at destroying anyone seemingly foolish enough to get in his way.
This third movie sees the superspy remaining in the search for who he is and where he came from. Alongside some help from his co-conspirator, Nicky (played
by Julia Stiles), Bourne persistently defies the CIA director, Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), ducking, weaving and evading their every move. Then, part way
through the film a lethal figure connected with Bourne’s mysterious past, trained by the same deadly and secret black-ops spy program, arrives testing him
to his limit.
Said by many to be the best action movie of the year, director Paul Greengrass, who directed the previous ‘Bourne Supremacy’ as well as ‘United 93’, has
created an action movie with brains which strikes the difficult balance of being both delicate yet aggressive.
The acting is first class. Matt Damon believably comes across as an efficient killing machine who at the same time is a complicated human being, his
vulnerability being exposed the more about his past you start to learn.
It’s all the stuff you’ve seen before; international jet-setting, spy vs. spy intrigue, car chases and fist fights – what’s so superb is that this
threequel, arguably the best of the series, exceeds all expectations of the genre.
The script from Tony Gilroy (having also written the previous two Bourne movies in 02 and 04), George Nolfi and Scott Z. Burns hones in on a constant air of
mistrust of the government, cleverly never getting so specific that the film could feel dated within a decade.
Although full of constantly shaking cameras, impossibly lucky, technologically advanced and physics-defying adrenalin paced action this film finally reveals
all about Bourne’s intriguing past, overall delivering a highly absorbing and satisfying, rollercoaster of a finale.
Although you are left with the possibility that there could indeed be a further Bourne picture house movie, hopefully the movie makers have had the good sense to
realise when a job has been done well and leave it where it has so masterfully been ended.
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