Second Hand, Runs Well

Rating: 7/10 (10 September 2004)

--POTENTIAL SPOILER--
Unearthing decent spy movies in this post-cold war epoch often resembles a wild goose chase, with true gems few and far between. The Bourne franchise came to us back in 2002, vying for attention against the tepid likes of a re-incarnated Jack Ryan in The Sum of All Fears. Starring Matt Damon, Bourne won hands down with its enjoyable romp of cross-European, high-tech escapades. Combining a reasonably gripping story with sufficient quotas of CGI-free excitement, The Bourne Identity filled a long deserted niche for many film buffs, and while it didn't exactly conjure the good old KGB vs Everybody days, it nonetheless heralded a comeback for previously prominent big screen values.
In the first Bourne foray, Damon played super agent Jason Bourne, suffering from amnesia and struggling to find out who the hell operated him in the first place. Amid several well-crafted action segments and car chases, the movie depicted Bourne's stand against a shadowy covert conspiracy bent on keeping hidden from prying eyes and vindictive ex-operatives with too much time and gadgets on their hands. The sequel begins more or less where the first chapter left off. A liberated Bourne and his prequel-originated love interest Marie (Franke Potente) elope to exotic Goa beaches in India, eking out a bucolic existence there away from hapless intelligence agencies and brainwashed assassins.
But idyllic conditions like those were never meant to last, and Bourne's infamy soon catches up with him, at Marie's grisly expense. Turns out a new secret agenda has risen to the fore, threatening to entangle our reluctant master spy. A p***ed off Bourne therefore ventures to locate those responsible for Marie buying the farm, as well as clear his own name.
While just as thrilling as its senior, The Bourne Supremacy reveals a major flaw even in the moniker given it: Matt Damon's indefatigable protagonist simply has too many moves, abilities, and lives for his own good. Believability aside, at some point the agent's uncanny expertise begins to grate, not gelling at all with his supposed cluelessness and so-called desperate situation. Would you be desperate if you had a seemingly endless supply of cash of every denomination, nine passports, and ready made weapons that materialize out of thin air?
To fluff up Supremacy's plot and distinguish it from Identity's, the newer flick features increased complexity and multiple conflicts in need of resolution, thus paving the way for additional episodes, should the need be felt. Bourne presently faces ghosts harking back to his former employers, Treadstone, plus a few new ones courtesy of that by-now obligatory action movie stalwart, the Russian mafia. Ever-menacing Brian Cox (The Ring, X2, Troy) returns as a suspiciously uncooperative would-be ally, tagging along for the ride while CIA chief Landry (Joan Allen) tries to organize a legitimate search for the missing renegade professional. Karl Urban (Chronicles of Riddick, Lord of the Rings) adds intimidation via a calculating Russian hit-man, and Julia Stiles contributes selected pouty facial expressions, minimally augmenting Supremacy's lineage and ties to its cinematic forebear.
But all of these characters can't mask the movie's slightly more-of-the-same feel. Despite an astonishingly accomplished car chase through Moscow in a puzzlingly sturdy old taxi, impressive shots of Berlin and pervasively consistent levels of suspense, overall impressions lead us to conclude Supremacy fails to surpass the first outing, resulting in superfluous baggage of the infuriatingly addictive variety. Expectations for whatever comes next in the action series, presumably Ludlum's Bourne Ultimatum, should be kept to moderate thresholds of feasibility. Do not anticipate something bombastic nor marvelously ground-breaking, but certainly look forward to more capable antics from the indestructible Damon and his box office panache.
Rating: * * *