Director:
Paul Greengrass
Starring:
Matt Damon
Brian Cox
Joan Allen
Karl Urban
Julia Stiles
Gabriel Mann
Franka Potente
Release: 23 Jul. 04
IMDb
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The Bourne Supremacy
BY: DAVID PERRY
More style than substance, the sequel to Doug Liman’s
surprisingly assured actioner The Bourne Identity is surprising if only for
being an example of the action film Liman was distancing himself from.
That’s not to say that The Bourne Supremacy is a bad film -- in terms of
simple genre excursions, it’s fairly tense and still well made -- but it
lacks the interesting aspects of The Bourne Identity that made the
possibility of a Bond-like franchise amenable.
But Liman’s nowhere to be found on this film, as the camera is handed over
to Bloody Sunday director Paul Greengrass. Like Liman, this is Greengrass’
first time with an action film, and he doesn’t quite make the move as
seamlessly. Where the shaky handheld camera work added to the intensity of
Bloody Sunday, they become distracting in The Bourne Supremacy, like the
cameraman is terrified not of the real commotion around him (an element that
has caused this style so much success on films like Bloody Sunday and The
Battle of Algiers) but that the intrepid actors having a expository
conversation might catch him filming their paycheck performance.
Most of the surviving members of The Bourne Identity’s cast return, some if
only for moments before being carted off in body bags. Nevertheless, the
only returning players that really matter are Matt Damon, whose intense gaze
was as much a character in the who-am-I thematic the first time around, and
Brian Cox, hogging all the good lines and delivering them like a real
professional. Their attributes are barely used here, though, since
Greengrass is more interested in the ticket-selling action that Universal
upped upon finding that their previous property had amazing power in the
video marketplace.
Settling for the lukewarm suspense that can come with mediocre Bond films,
The Bourne Supremacy skitters into a faultless if unimpressive series of
action sequences. The disappointment is more in the backward motion of this
franchise, not in this single film -- as a genre film, it’s actually not
that bad. I just worry that the bipolar antics of Jason Bourne found in
these first two films will be correctly reconfigured by the third
installment, promised by the type of stylized exit posturing (complete with
a refrain of Moby’s “Extreme Ways”) that would have actually seemed more at
home with a pre-Bourne Liman film, if not for the fact that it turns the
modest super spy into a fashion model, or at least a Michael Mann-fitted 60
Minutes producer.
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