Enjoyable, Damon's great (spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (28 July 2004)

I saw this after seeing BOURNE SUPREMACY.
A man who's been shot in the back three times is found floating off the coast of France (Damon). He soon discovers that his name is Jason Bourne and is some kind of superspy.
The first movie is not better than the sequel, but it is different in tone. There's more of a feeling here of lightness, even amiability, and the source of that is, I think, Damon's performance. *He* is much better here than he was in SUPREMACY, mainly because there's a more natural blending of his natural, sort of boyish charm and the action. Damon often gives the sense that he doesn't understand how he's doing what he's doing, and that seems right for him, a natural fit.
We also have the addition of a female here, Potente, and their relationship inevitably helps soften the mood.
The story is not as sharp as it was in SUPREMACY, which is actually an extremely well-written version of the breed. As Bourne begins to unravel the mystery of his past, Treadstone sends operatives out to kill him. Much of the action is Bourne knocking them down one by one, until he knocks down Clive Owen, who gives him enough information to finally advance the plot to the climax. It's entertaining, don't get me wrong, but doesn't have the sense of inevitability that a great genre plot should.
The action is superior. Whatever Greengrass gained by the extensive handheld work in SUPREMACY (immediacy, mostly) he lost with incoherence. The director here takes a much more restrained approach, and that's welcome. The Paris chase scene is better than the climactic Moscow chase scene in Supremacy, in particular, partly because we have a better sense of what's going on. I also think the final Damon/Owen fight -- the best sequence in the film, in my opinion -- is aided by relatively static shots.
IDENTITY is lighter, more of a popcorn movie than the rather sad SUPREMACY. Both are worth seeing. With Chris Cooper and Brian Cox, both basically doing themselves as badguy agency officials.