Bourne Gets Better
Round 2 in Bourne Spy Series is Supreme

Two years ago, Matt Damon tried to break out of his buddy routine with Ben Affleck by taking the role of Jason Bourne, the amnesiac spy from the Robert Ludlum novel The Bourne Identity. In the end, it was a decent little spy thriller that made only a minor blip on the radar during a summer when Spider-Man and Star Wars: Episode II were released. Now Damon is trying again, bringing a new story and some old enemies back to the screen.

In The Bourne Identity, Damon first played Jason Bourne, the amnesiac man who slowly put together the pieces of his life to discover he had been a spy. In The Bourne Supremacy, some of the pieces in Bourne's memory are still puzzling, but he is satisfied not knowing more about that old life. Having run away with the French woman Marie (Franka Potente), he is living "off the grid" in a costal region of India. Their tropical paradise is disrupted, however, with the appearance of a hired killer who appears intent on erasing Bourne and his girl.

The story behind The Bourne Supremacy is one of CIA operations. Like any good spy novel, there are layers of truth that are slowly peeled away like the layers of an onion. Joan Allen plays Pamela Landy, an agent whose operation to catch a mole in the CIA has been thwarted by a double murder that appears to be the work of Jason Bourne. With the assistance of Ward Abbot (Brian Cox), she unveils the shroud covering the Treadstone project and the assassins it trained so well. Throwing the resources of the CIA into motion, Landy is intent to bring in Bourne and find out his connection to the murdered agents.

Like the previous film, The Bourne Supremecy is a darker spy film than the candy-coated action flicks like the James Bond franchise. The violence is more real, more frightening, and the overall tone of the film is more somber. No witty remarks, no beautiful half-naked women, no martinis. Bourne is a trained killer, and his intensity is almost visceral.

The visceral nature of the film is abundant in the pure adrennaline chase scene in Moscow. As Bourne drives a taxi in an attempt to elude the local police and the secret service, the audience is treated to a car chase that is more like a deadly game of bumper cars than a chase. Windows smash, cars bend, tires blow, and through it all the camera jumps back and forth to the interior of the taxi. The scene is a heart-pounding rush.

Helping to create this sense of immediacy is director Paul Greengrass' cinematic approach to fight scenes and chase scenes. The camera is never removed from the action. Instead, it is up close and often blocked by bodies in motion, giving the audience more darkness than light. The jittery hand-held technique is unwelcome at times, but the result is a movie that feels more real.

Damon is very convincing as Bourne, perhaps because the majority of his character comes from actions and not words. He has a look on his face, a glare in his eyes, that frightens. He seems quite capable of killing, and appears to have no conscience. That said, when he does speak, it makes the audience pay attention because each word (like each action) is weighted carefully and used only as necessary. This is a character that does not waste energy on bon mots with the bad guys.

The rest of the cast is intriguing, but not outstanding. In addition to Cox, Julia Stiles also returns to the cast as Nicky (Nicolette). As in The Bourne Identity, this great actress is underutilized. She has one good scene with Damon before her character completely falls out of the story about two-thirds of the way through the film.

Although it does not stand out as an exceptional film, The Bourne Supremacy is better than its predecessor in many ways: it tells a better story, the motivation of the characters is more clearly defined, and it has more action. While Damon may not be playing Jason Bourne in twenty years, I think it is a safe bet that audiences will see The Bourne Ultimatum in theaters in the near future.

MY RATING: 7 out of 10.

RATED:
RUN TIME: 108 min.

Bourne Gets Better Round 2 in Bourne Spy Series is Supreme

Bourne Gets Better
Round 2 in Bourne Spy Series is Supreme