Bourne Supremacy
When the time came for this 2004 sequel to the smash hit Bourne Identity, the changeups in command were certainly wide spread. Original director Doug Liman was let go for allowing the first film’s budget to spiral out of control and was replaced by relative newcomer Paul Greengrass, making his debut on an major studio production and more notably, making the first use of the hand held so called “shakycam” to film most of the fights and action sequences, an innovation that was applauded by some and condemned by others. In addition, the changes from the Robert Ludlum followup novel were considerable, again dropping the long running “Jackal” assassin villain and filling it in with a thin story that once again is only fleshed out mostly by the CIA characters and sequences. Most consequently though, is the handling of the character of Marie as played by Franka Potente, as even though in the book she finds herself kidnapped (providing Bourne with much of his motivation there) but nonetheless survives to become more or less a side character after being the key romantic interest in the first story, here she is subject to a gruesome and tragic death within the first 15 minutes of the film, again helping to give Bourne a much larger motivation in seeking revenge, but also causing much of the story to turn into a virtual retread of the original, as Jason Bourne continues seeking the answers that have eluded him about his own past. The story begins with Bourne having flashbacks about his now dead mentor Conklin (Chris Cooper) sending him on some type of a “mystery mission” some years back that he can’t seem to recollect before before conforted by his soon to be dead lady love. Meanwhile, a CIA operation to recover some lost files headed up by Pamela Landy (Joan Allen, admittedly a very pretty breath of fresh air for this sequel) is thwarted when another assassin not only kills all of the principals involved but also uses a fingerprint to frame Bourne for the muckup, which leads to Marie catching a bullet in the head (intended for him) to seemingly close the case and tie up all loose ends. But Bourne is actually still alive and has some work to do while Landy (who has just received top level clearance) has become fascinated by Bourne and indeed the whole now defunct Treadstone program from which he came, causing her to step on the toes of Ward Abbott (Brian Cox returning from the first film), the CIA boss who had had the most direct contact with Conklin and knowledge of the whole thing. The funny thing about Cox is that he’s almost an anomaly amongst respected character actors, as when he’s good (like in how he successfully carved out his own unique interpretation of Hannibal Lecter in the awesomely underrated Manhunter), he can be EXTREMELY good, but when he’s bad (such as in the way that he stuck out like a sore thumb trying to play a lead character among a virtual sea of A list actors in Red), he can be nearly painful to watch in his theatrics. Here his huffy puffy bureaucrat doing everything that he can to cover his own ass all while he feels the hammer of justice coming down on him is somewhere in the middle, as he constantly talks down to Allen’s Landy throughout the whole film for overstepping her boundaries as he also desperately tries to see to it that Bourne is put down once and for all. But storywise, Greengrass does impress by putting the viewer more often than not in Landy’s shoes as she finds out more and more about what’s really going on and moreso, successfully making Bourne into a more mysterious, phantom like character in her eyes as the film goes on (even though Matt Damon does carry the whole thing with even more resolve than before and thus, less emotion). That feat is impressive even as the much talked about shakycam action scenes offer us, among other things, a fight scene between Bourne and what appears to be the only other remaining Treadstone assassin (where he finally learns that Cooper’s Conklin is actually dead) despite the fact that we can’t help but wonder just how exactly he found the guy when he’s still suffering from amnesia, along with extensive chases through the streets of Berlin and Moscow before tracking down the Russian assassin (Karl Urban) responsible for the death of Marie and the whole frameup in the first place, ironically not a Treadstone guy but rather a member of The Russian Secret Service whose duties seem to consist of hanging out in nightclubs waiting for his next assignment. But at least (unlike the other Treadstone guys who all seemed to go down so easily to Bourne) he gives Bourne a real run for his money in the cat and mouse department and actually comes off as being a credible threat. This review would also be remiss if not for the mention of the return of Julia Stiles (still one of the most beautiful actresses around who deserves to be a major star) as Nicky, the now former CIA point girl from Paris who seems to be living the quieter life in Amsterdam before she is picked up and brought in to assist, revealing that her time spent with Conklin and The Treadstone Program had resulted in assassins who were just simply wound up too damn tight by Conklin and his training and motivation techniques which had caused most of them to have massive mental instability (and finding yet another way to conveniently scapecoat Cooper’s now dead villain from the original) before Bourne finds a way to get her into his own hands so that he can interrogate her himself. As the story goes on and we learn more about the mystery hit (so under wraps that even Stiles’ high level character didn’t know about it) as well as Cox’s duplicity in the whole thing, we also see the elevation of Allen’s Landy character to being that of an actual “positive” CIA boss, one who seems to be supportive of Bourne’s actions (provided that he’s not guilty of taking out her own people) and for whom it almost appears that Bourne is drawn to on an almost maternal level (as beautiful as she is, Joan Allen would probably NOT be an ideal romantic lead for Matt Damon). But there is still the issue of Marie’s cruel and sudden death (which again is a departure from the novels) which in many ways sadly renders the romantic elements of the first movie to being completely moot and even casts a pall over all future viewings of the original where Potente at least lent the story a certain warmth that is missing here. The fact that the story is indeed rather thin and features Bourne merely going from Point A to Point B to Point C where the story then wraps up entirely minus the pathos that we felt from him in the first film (Damon never smiles even once the whole way through here) with the occasional bit of fast moving martial arts trickery or his McGyver like ability to take a handy household item and make a weapon out of it sometimes being the only things keeping us alert whenever he is onscreen. Urban as well retains much of the mysterious aura that we’ve come to expect from the rival assassins of this franchise (although he does do much better than Clive Owen’s simpering “Professor” from Identity). It just gets to the point where we start to wonder if Bourne is ever really going to make some headway in obtaining his “revenge” for being “transformed” by the whole Treadstone debacle (and his final showdown with Cox here is certainly a letdown) or if maybe just the best story option would be to have him agree to take on some legit hit jobs for the government so that the storyline can change up just a bit from the usual Spy vs Spy format that we’ve grown accustomed to (even if it would run the risk of appearing to be too similar to Bond). However, the energy is still there as is the excellent, franchise defining theme song by Moby which the producers obviously knew worked like a charm in being catchy enough to enjoy over the end credits of all the films. Even with the initial mystery and wonder of the first film long since gone, this can still be praised for its eye catching action scenes and for the continuing themes of one man’s near hopeless search for his true identity embodied by a hero who really is quite easy to root for…
7/10