I was once told to thank my lucky stars that I had never actually managed to catch the Bourne Supremacy in theatres. This must be what hubris feels like.
Things start to fall apart pretty much from the start. The film is loosely based on a series of spy novels I've never read, so I can't actually bitch about how much they differ and/or diverge from the original material. It wouldn't matter to me if they did, since I don't mind this phenomenon as much as I did when I was an elitist snob in high school.
The story is cookie cutter tripe. Like the first film, which was an acceptable action romp, we find Jason Bourne desperate to find out why people are trying to kill him. Some of the details of his past are a bit hazy, and he's taken to writing them down whenever he has a flashback. This is an activity that Marie (the utterly wasted Franka Potente) encourages. Aw. They're so in love. Smooch. Kiss. Oh, Marie's dead. And that's the first twenty minutes or so, in a nutshell. We then follow Jason as he outwits and outmaneuvers the CIA operatives hot on his trail. Someone on the inside has framed Jason for the deaths of two field operatives and that takes us into their motivations. The problem with all of this, though, is that it's probaby the most idiotic plan anyone has ever come up with.
A better writer than I would probably hold off on giving away the big mystery, but that would only encourage you to see the film. I'm not going to do that. Don't get me wrong. This isn't the worst film I've ever seen, and it was quite enjoyable in places. Just don't go to see it for the thrill or the mystery. Neither of them is worth it. Just go because you like car chases and mediocre fight scenes that are poorly edited. The men behind the frame-up are Ward Abbot (Brian Cox), from the first film, and some Russians that he struck a deal with over a decade ago. Back when Bourne was just a trainee with Treadstone, the government training program that turned him into the ultimate assassin, his superiors took some money from some shady Russians in exchange for information. Rather than be exposed by some pesky turncoat named Neski, they decide to use Jason to whack him and make it look like a suicide. Unfortunately, Neski's wife shows up out of nowhere and Jason decides to make it look like a murder suicide. Good work, and that completes his training. Even though Conklin (Chris Cooper from the first film) is dead, Cox is still very much alive and afraid of being discovered. When the investigation gets too close, he decides to frame Jason, kill him, and lead the CIA on a wild goose chase that could last for years.
Sound good? It really isn't. The entire operation borders on the retarded. For starters, Abbot was well aware that Bourne would be happy to kill him and everyone involved in Treadstone if they came after him. All he did by trying to kill Jason, and killing Marie successfully in the process, was pissing the guy off and setting him on the road to kicking your ass. Now, at first, I thought this was part of the plan. Piss off Bourne and get him to attack the CIA agents investigating Neski's death, thus killing two birds with one stone. Unfortunately, this was just a giant clusterfuck that blossomed well out of control from start to finish. The resolution to the story is weak and hardly worth the cost of the DVD or the price of admission.
The DVD extras are laughable. Not for their quality, but their content. During the behind-the-scenes documentary, one of the producers commented that they wanted to avoid Hollywood, Action-Movie cliches. How did they go about doing that? By watching a bunch of other Hollywood Action Movies and immitating them. That's how. BRILLIANT! Fuckers. God, I can't say I hated this movie, but I really hate how this movie was made. The editing was poor and the camera-work was unnecessarily jerky. I can't even give this film a rating on a scale of one to ten. It just sucks. Period.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it wishes he could win an Academy Award and become an overpaid action cliche.
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