Bourne Supremacy, The  (2004)

Starring: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Brian Cox, Joan Allen, Julia Stiles
Director: Paul Greengrass

Rating: PG-13

Distributor: Universal

Release Date: 07.23.04

Review Posted: 07.23.04

Spoilers: None

By Sara M. Fetters

"Bourne" Reigns Supreme

One of the best things to come out of summer 2002 wasn’t “Spider-man” or “Attack of the Clones,” but instead the old-school espionage thriller “The Bourne Identity.” Starring Matt Damon and loosely based on the Cold War-era spy novel by Robert Ludlum, director Doug Liman expertly crafted an intense and exhilarating action film that ranked as one of the year’s more pleasant surprises.

Audiences agreed. Not only did it play solidly throughout the crowded summer, “Bourne” also became the number-one renting DVD/video title of 2003 proving it had legs far beyond the usual spy-vs-spy picture. And why not? It’s rare to find an action vehicle anymore that has the gall to combine smarts and suspense into one intoxicatingly giddy cocktail, especially when it comes to the usual tired retreads usually offered by Hollywood.

What isn’t at all surprising is that from the moment “Bourne” became a hit, a sequel was quickly put into production. In the normal scenario surrounding a flick fast-tracked in this way, said sequel would be a travesty, calling into question all the warm and fuzzy feelings I hold towards the original. But low and behold damned if “The Bourne Supremacy” isn’t just a good sequel, it’s also an outstanding film in its own right. In fact, this paranoia-fueled adrenaline ride is downright exemplary and demands favorable comparisons to ‘70’s classics like “The Parallax View,” “3-Days of the Condor” and “The French Connection.”

What’s most remarkable is that screenwriter Tony Gilroy (co-writer of the original) – again cribbing (very) loosely from Ludlum’s bestseller of the same name – is able to make so many standard spy film clichés fresh and exciting. Deftly partnering with working-class British documentarian and director Paul Greengrass (“Bloody Sunday”) the duo have crafted a modern filmmaking miracle” A big budget sequel that just so happens to be one the summer’s – maybe the year’s – best films.

It’s been two years since Jason Bourne (Damon) entered into a life or death race against time to regain his memory. In that time, while nightmares of a life he can’t recall still knock on the door, he’s been able to find solace and love with Marie (Franka Potente), the German expatriate whom willingly joined him on his race across Europe. Hiding out in Goa, India, save for those occasional nightmares, life is good and maybe, just maybe, the CIA really is going stick with their promise to leave the duo alone.

But their idyll is smashed when mysterious contract killer Kirill (Karl Urban, “The Chronicles of Riddick”) descends upon their sleepy town with his sight set squarely on Bourne. Thinking his former employers have reneged on their pledge, and emboldened by the loss of that most dear to him, Jason dives once more into the world of espionage and double-dealing with thoughts of retribution in the forefront of his mind. He promised them he would come for all of them, bring the hammer of fear and vengeance down upon them if they came looking for him and Marie. Now that threat must become a reality, and whoa to any that foolishly stand in his way.

The conspiracy at the heart of this mystery is even more twisted and intimately personal than the amnesiac spy first imagines. With new players like Pamela Landy (Joan Allen, “The Ice Storm”) mixing with familiar adversaries like bureau chief Ward Abbott (Brian Cox, “Troy”), the CIA is pulling out all the stops in their quest to bring Bourne down. Soon he’s knee-deep in international global politics and Russian oil production, and all of it connected to a past life Jason knows he doesn’t want to remember.

Sweeping across the globe and moving with a blisteringly urgency all its own, “The Bourne Supremacy” is the best film of its type to hit screens since John Frankenheimer hit his stride one last time with “Ronin.” Gilroy’s script is tight, streamlined, full of rich character detail and brutally effective. Damon is allowed even more freedom to make Bourne breathe, fearlessly taking the character to nether regions of guilt and revenge that risk making him unlikable. It is a testament to Damon’s skill that he never crosses that line, his performance a delicate balancing act between forgiveness and anger bubbling over with a crystalline humanity this type of film doesn’t offer.

The rest of the cast is equal to the challenge. Allen plays her shady and icily driven character to depths I’m not quite sure even occurred to the screenwriter, while Urban powers through the picture with an unbridled machismo that’s scary and intoxicating all at once. Julia Stiles (“The Prince and Me”) and Gabriel Mann (“High Art”) effectively reprise their roles from the original, while Cox sure handedly navigates the mysterious Abbott to far more murky depths than he was allowed to during the first go around.

What I most like about the two “Bourne” films, however, is how the action sequences in both movies flow organically out of the character’s themselves. There is nothing that happens here solely because someone thought it would look cool. Instead, when violence erupts it is because the character’s themselves have moved in that direction, and through this action we get to learn even more about these people and who they really are.

But what action sequences they are! Greengrass stages one amazingly tense sequence after another. From Bourne leading the CIA on a wild goose chase through a crowded Berlin square to an opening flight in India that ends with an underwater aria, the veteran Brit balances spectacle and intensity so delicately and with such precession you’d think he’d been making movies of this type all his life. With hard-hitting documentaries shifting through the underbelly of British life, in a way he has, while 2002’s “Bloody Sunday” certainly cemented the director’s status as a filmmaker to watch. But he outdoes himself here, proving a big studio budget and a summer release date do not mean quality, intelligence and complexity have to be left by the wayside.

That’s adroitly proven during the film’s crackerjack demolition derby through crowded Russian streets. Easily the best of its kind to hit screens in ages – I’d go so far to say it enters the “Bullet,” “French Connection,” “The Road Warrior” and “Ronin” pantheon of all-time great car chases – Greengrass stages moment after moment of blissfully tense excitement. Not only that, the characters themselves build and contort and reach emotional climax with every twist and turn of the wheel, the viewer feeling every swerve of both momentum and emotion each step of the way.

There are things to nitpick about, too be sure. The device used to get Bourne back in action is more than a bit routine, and there are one or two lapses in logic that don’t quite fly. But everything else is so well done I can’t say I really care. Oliver Wood’s (“Face/Off”) cinematography gives the picture a documentary-like verisimilitude that’s intoxicating, and Christopher Rouse (“The Italian Job”) edits it all together so seamlessly events feel as if they are happening in real time.

While this summer has seen more than its share of disappointments, there still have been films a cut above the fray. In fact, both “Spider-man 2” and “Harry Potter 3” are better, richer and more satisfying than their predecessors, adroitly proving sequel doesn’t always have to mean disaster. Now comes “The Bourne Supremacy,” and if I didn’t believe Hollywood could still get it done before, there is no questioning it now. Of all the sequels I’ve seen this summer, this is the one I can see being discussed decades from now. No question about it, “Bourne” reigns supreme.

Film Rating: êêêê  (out of 4)

Home | Back to Top