A tense thrill-ride with superb action sequences

Rating: 9/10 (14 November 2014)

THE BOURNE IDENTITY is a tense thrill-ride anchored by Matt Damon's strong central performance as a amnesiac assassin in search of who he is. It also kick-started the Bourne series, which raised the bar for intelligent action films. There's not too much need to go into plot details, except that Jason Bourne is a former CIA-trained assassin who is nearly killed when a job goes south. He wakes up with no memory of what happened before and sets off on a mission to find out who he is and why he is being hunted. One aspect I really liked was the balance between action and drama. The action scenes are quite relentless, but the film also allows a relationship to be developed between Matt Damon's Bourne and Marie (Franka Potente), a woman he meets practically by chance. They each have their own somewhat similar problems, and they work together to try and fix them. Normally these types of movies just focus on the protagonist, but here the audience is also exposed and given insight into the other side: the people who are trying to bring Bourne back in. Although some suspension of disbelief is required, the movie does feel grounded in reality, especially considering the recent glut of leaks regarding the NSA. In my opinion, it was nice to see the inner workings of intelligence agencies, and to top it off, a smattering of government intrigue as well. I thought the plotting was very solid, and the performances across the board were very good. The only weak link I found was Julia Stiles as Nicolette, a Paris-based CIA asset who runs a safe house. I thought her role was slightly underwritten, and her performance wasn't as good as the rest of the cast. Moving on, the technical aspects of the film were all excellent. I thought that the action sequences were well-filmed and easy to follow in a geographical sense. The fights were quite intense and well-choreographed as well. Matt Damon makes for a good action star, and this movie is proof of that. The score was also quite good, and helped maintain tension throughout the nearly two-hour running time. All in all, I thought that this was an excellent action film that can hold its own against similar series, like James Bond (which this clearly was intended as). Highly recommended for fans of action films and thrillers. You won't be disappointed.