Bourne, James Bourne

Rating: 2/10 (13 November 2008)

I found the movie dull, boring, trite, contrived, convoluted, rushed, & terribly edited, directed and written. I see a lot of movies, probably 2 a week in theatres, and this one was one of the first this year that I was actually considering leaving early.
The fact that they obviously tried to emulate the success of the Bourne series was evident right off the bat. The opening car chase sequence was horribly shot. Between shots of Bond's ear lobe, the steering wheel, and his foot on the gas pedal, it was nearly impossible to really understand what was happening. I kept thinking to myself: "Just show me the road for 5 seconds!"
Casino Royale rebooted the franchise. It took out all of the superfluous and gratuitous car chases, boat chases, and airplane chases that clogged the arteries of the Bond franchise after 21 films of redundancy. Casino Royale was such a hit because it relied on a strong storyline, plot, character development, and execution. Martin Campbell, who also directed the highly revered "Goldeneye" has the golden touch. Marc Forster, on the other hand, is totally clueless on how to shoot action sequences.
I think, ultimately what killed this movie was the very weak plot line: Evil guy who helps dictators come to power, then surprises them by secretly buying their major water supply  Pretty weak in my opinion.
Neither bond girl was very interesting, especially the cardboard-like Agent Fields, whose purpose for even being in the film other than to be a dead body covered in oil, is beyond me.
It was also very convenient how they jumped out of a burning plane and parachuted right into a major plot device "They've used dynamite there's an underground lake here, Oh I get it now".
The rotten cherry on the melted sundae was the Hydrogen-Fuel celled building at the end. As soon as it was mentioned that the building they were in was powered by unstable fuel cells, I thought "I wonder if this building will blow up. Will Bond have to save the girl in a burning inferno?" Unfortunately, I was right.
We're back to normal here, if Casino Royale hadn't been made, and this was in it's place, there would have been little deviation from the absurdity that the Bond films had become as of "The World is Not Enough" and "Die Another Day".
An angry, vengeful Bond is a cool idea but they wrote him like a grade 3 would write the same character: sulking, angry, and expressionless.
The CIA side-story was also quite boring, and Jeffery Wright, who played a green, vulnerable, and human Felix Leiter in Casino Royale, was restricted to a maniacal, emotionless, robot in Quantum of Solace.
This movie lost the human, realistic touch that was the driving force in Casino Royale.
And the whole "running and fighting through small alcoves and apartments in Italy" was done, three times over, in the Bourne series.