Still packs a thrill. Terrific action movie and the start of a great series.

Rating: 7/10 (13 May 2013)

It's funny how Summer movies play out over time. I vividly remember the big tentpole releases of 2002 ("Spider-Man", "Attack of the Clones", "Road to Perdition", "Minority Report"), and none of them hold up for me as well as "The Bourne Identity".
It was a gamble back then to cast Matt Damon in the lead role (even though Liman & Co. clearly spun the Bourne novels into something else of their own), but it pays off. Damon is fully up to the task and brings his A game, belying his fresh-faced looks and convincingly brings a lethal spy to life. It also helps that he's backed by Chris Cooper and Brian Cox, but he deserves loads of credit.
The beauty of this thing is that it just doesn't seem to lose steam. Bourne's always moving (and therefore, so are we), whether he's trading fists or bullets, playing Spider-Man on the side of a building, or tearing up the streets of Paris in a well-done car chase (with a great song choice). But even in the quiet scenes, the mystery continues to deepen, and our attention is never adrift. And this was before Greengrass' hyperactive editing took over in the sequels. That takes skill.
The movie's got plenty going for it: the car chase, the fight scenes, the rapport between Damon and Potente, the seething rage in Cooper, beautiful locations, and the occasional sense that anything can happen (indeed, shockingly brutal fight scenes).
Solid spy/action movie, and all-around entertaining.
7.5/10