Shooting up on celluloid epinephrine...

The Bourne Identity was a fresh take on the espionage thriller back when Doug Liman helmed the first part of the franchise based loosely (extremely loosely) on Robert Ludlum's trilogy of books. What seemed like an odd casting choice at the time with Good Will Hunting himself, Matt Damon, seemed even stranger when a guy known only for a sleeper hit comedy Swingers was placed in the director's chair to bring this roller coaster action film to life. Lucky for us. Instead of the glitzy, gadget-laden spy world of James Bond or the suspension-of-disbelief scenarios of Mission: Impossible, Liman relied on old-fashioned suspense, tension, non-stop pacing, and pure action to keep the audience enthralled. Jason Bourne is on the run from his assassins using modern day technology, martial arts, his brain, and lots of natural adrenaline as his tools of escape instead of Q-division laser watches or explosive bubble gum. By the second film, The Bourne Supremacy, Paul Greengrass took over the franchise, and somehow made a movie even more kinetic than its predecessor. And to prove that was no fluke, they brought him in for the third installment of the franchise, The Bourne Ultimatum.

As the first two films, The Bourne Ultimatum really uses nothing from the source material its title comes from. It's actually a bit surprising they chose to continue using the titles for these films considering how far the plot deviates from the books. Instead of the book plot where Jason Bourne is being hunted down by Carlos the Jackal, the movie version takes place shortly after the events of the film version of The Bourne Supremacy. Bourne uncovers more information that may lead him to learn more about his true identity. As a result, the sinister underworkings of a CIA black-ops division are in danger of being compromised, and Jason Bourne finds himself being hunted down yet again.

To say Paul Greengrass likes to keep things moving is an understatement--this flick flies like a supersonic jet. Jason Bourne is perpetually on the run, and you'd have to be asleep or dead not to feel like you're running with him. And it's not just a trick of placing action sequence after action sequence together. Michael Bay tries to do that with all his movies, and all it manages to do is make me slightly nauseous most of the time. Instead, Greengrass manages to give you just the right shots to keep you fully engrossed in the scene without making you dizzy and somehow convinces you that you're actually standing in the midst of the action. He's really becoming one of the greats in this action genre. Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly really sums it up well in the introductory paragraph of his own review of the film:

Marveling at the uncanny off-center camera technique of Jaws, Alfred Hitchcock, during a TV interview late in his life, offered the following description of the director he referred to as ''young Spielberg '': ''He's the first one of us who doesn't see the proscenium arch.'' Spielberg, in other words, was the first mainstream filmmaker whose visual awareness didn't derive from the classic spatial dynamics of the theater. Watching The Bourne Ultimatum, with its swervy, headlong, you are there images of a man on the run from forces he senses yet cannot see, I remembered Hitchcock's words, and I thought: If Spielberg doesn't see the proscenium arch, then Paul Greengrass barely even sees the stage. He's that live-wire and intoxicating a wizard of suspense.

Film scores always separate the great movies from the so-so ones, and familiar musical themes used in all the previous Bourne films written by composer John Powell further aid in keeping the adrenaline levels high throughout the movie, and Moby's "Extreme Ways" to finish it out as it always does has you leaving the theater thoroughly pumped up.

Matt Damon reprises his role as Jason Bourne, and seems to have really grown into this role. David Straithairn, portraying director of the black-ops division, is the newest cast member to be introduced in this film as the leading baddie. Joan Allen comes back from her role in the second sequel as CIA deputy director Pamela Landy. Also returning is Nicky Parsons, played by Julia Stiles, and proves that all great action films can still be ruined by the presence of one unneeded woman. I have yet to understand what vital piece of this puzzle the character of Nicky fills, and I'm not sure The Bourne Ultimatum has come up with one either. After every Bourne film so far, I've walked out of the theater wondering if the majority of the scenes with Julia Stiles are on the cutting room floor because the insistence of keeping her around never makes sense. So as not to give out any spoilers whatsoever, there's a little bit at the end of this post in Invisotext telling you what happens to Nicky Parsons, although it doesn't really give away anything vital.

In a summer that gave me some mild disappointments with Spiderman 3 and Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End, it was a delight to find that they saved the best for the end of the season--this was truly the most satisfying film I've seen all summer long. Robert Ludlum stopped writing additional sequels to the Bourne series after The Bourne Ultimatum--let's hope the movie studios have other plans.

I was tempted to give The Bourne Ultimatum the "Dangerously Cheesy" rating, and probably would have if they killed off Julia Stiles' character, but alas, she lives on to perhaps costar in another Bourne sequel. And for that, I must give this film my downgraded rating of: