I got a chance tonight to do something cool and a heckuva lot of fun. I got an invite to go see a limited audience prescreener of The Bourne Ultimatum (released in theaters this Friday) at Universal Studios Orlando. As not only a big fan of the Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy films but also an old Ludlum reader, of course I took the invite. You kiddin’? Try keeping me away.
There’s very little that I can say about The Bourne Ultimatum without ruining big chunks of the plot. I can’t even discuss sequel possibilities without ruining part of the ending. So here we go - the official Less Urban unreview of The Bourne Ultimatum.
Let’s start with a recap of The Bourne Identity.
Matt Damon plays Jason Bourne, a highly trained CIA assassin fished out of the Mediterranean by a fishing boat and nursed back to health, absent any memory of who he is. He remembers everything else - how to speak several languages, how to fight, how to use weapons, cities and places and things - but has no idea who he is. Jason does, however, quickly conclude that he’s dangerous, and in the company of a young woman named Marie sets out on a long journey to discover who “Jason Bourne” actually is and how he came to be. The CIA, meanwhile, is trying to kill what they see as a black ops agent who’s gone off the reservation.
Bourne Supremacy picks up the story three years later. Tragic events have driven Bourne out of hiding to put him back in conflict with his old CIA masters, forcing him to finally take the fight to the ones ultimately responsible. Not in any way related to the plot of the Ludlum novel of the same name, Supremacy extended the story of the Identity film; it wasn’t a bad film at all, but the plot came off a bit clunky. It didn’t really have the clean design that Identity had. By the end of Supremacy, though, Bourne has answered some of the questions surrounding his identity and the secret program that created him, Operation Treadstone.
And so we move on to The Bourne Ultimatum.
This is going to be remarkably spoiler-free, for a good reason: there’s little I can say about the story itself that won’t ruin it, because the plot is remarkably well-integrated not only internally but with the other two chapters.
First - and this is extremely important - ‘Ultimatum’ does not stand on its own. It’s not designed to do so. The entire point of the film was obviously to tie the three films together and close out the story arc begun in The Bourne Identity, bringing it all home to a satisfactory conclusion. This the film does in spades - but if you haven’t seen the first two films, don’t even think of watching this one before you do. And if you have seen the others, watch them again before going. You’ll enjoy Ultimatum much more for it.
Most of the film is about addressing unanswered questions from the first two films, loose threads left hanging. In between the usual Bourne fare - car/motorcycle chases, deception, manuevers, and lots of overall sneaky shit - Ultimatum takes the first two stories and sets them within a (somewhat) new overall context. As usual, the pacing is extremely busy and quick, even frantic; it didn’t seem to suffer the plot drag that infected Supremacy, but it might actually be too frantic for some. It’s easily the most action-oriented of the three Bournes.
Expect to be somewhat unnerved by this one, in a way that didn’t happen with the other films. You think you know what happened earlier - you don’t. Not really. The events themselves were basically what they were.. but context is everything, and the one thing Jason Bourne is lacking most is context. In this film, he gets context.
By the time you reach the end of the film, you will have definitive, concrete, unambiguous answers to virtually all of the significant questions posed by Identity and Supremacy. You will know exactly what Treadstone was - in a way that goes much more deeply and personally than we’ve seen so far - and the true profound significance of Bourne’s inability to kill Wombosi in Identity. It’s a lot more profound than you think.
And yes. By the end of the film, you will know exactly who Jason Bourne is, and how exactly he came to be. Blatant, direct, and without a doubt.
And in a way that might have you leaving the theater a bit creeped out.
Acting was good, all around. Matt Damon’s got the Bourne act down pat, and I honestly think he’s improved at it. Julia Stiles has a meatier role this time; rather than standing around dumbfounded or being terrorized in subways, she actually gets engaged in the storyline - for the first time in the Bournes, you get the sense that her character is actually a highly trained CIA operative rather than a lost college intern. Joan Allen returns with style as Pamela Landy. Best of all, David Strathern (Good Night And Good Luck), a favorite of mine, joins the cast as the new boss CIA heavy. He does a great job.
I liked this film a lot. It was well built, the plot hung well, and I absolutely loved how thoroughly it tied the three films together into a single whole. It effectively turns the three films into a single movie and it does it well.
And finally, if you’re the type who just wants to see Matt Damon kick ass and be all sneaky-like, alongside lots of car chases and spectacular explosions, there’s plenty of eye candy in Ultimatum to go around. You won’t be disappointed.
That’s about all I can say. Watch the other two again. Then go see Ultimatum on Friday.
