Bourne Redemption

Rating: 9/10 (6 August 2004)

"The Bourne Supremacy" is perhaps the best spy thriller in the past few years. Matt Damon as "dormant" CIA assassin, Jason Bourne, is the tormented hero forced back into the spy game when the stakes become personal. Director Paul Greengrass provides expert pace, intrigue, and intelligence to the movie. Although his visual style of quick cuts, particularly in action sequences is bewildering. More on that later. Matt Damon is a movie star. As Jason Bourne he brings tremendous intensity balanced with the disturbing calm of master assassin. Along with Greengrass, acknowledge the Tony Gilroy screenplay based on the novel by Robert Ludlum. "Supremacy" also has an excellent cast including the very strong and smart Joan Allen as Pamela Landy, CIA operations director, the subdued evil of Brian Cox as Ward Abbott (Landy's predecessor), and the solid Julia Stiles returning as Nicky, the voice of conscience.
"Supremacy" has an edge-- it is uncompromising. Jason Bourne wants to find some measure of peace in self-imposed exile in a remote town in India with the love of his life, Marie (the beautiful Franka Potente). However, he is haunted by patch memories of past missions. He was a programmed killer, and some of his targets were not necessarily the "bad guys". Greengrass and Gilroy unravel the story where their hero takes responsibility for both his actions and the aftermath, and accepts that he will not be forgiven.
The story is rather intricate, and my mind is rather simple. Consequently, this does not give anything away. Fortunately, the plotting is straight forward. So here goes. An assignment to recover CIA files under the watch of Landy (Allen) goes amok, and agents are murdered. This debacle is framed on Bourne, who is residing in the Indian town. To complete the conspiracy, a former KGB operative (the dark and charismatic Karl Urban) is sent to kill Bourne (Damon). He fails; however, it results in a personal tragedy for Bourne. Thus, Bourne is forced back into the game seeking retribution. This is a welcome twist from "The Bourne Identity": Jason Bourne is now choosing his targets. He tells Landy, "I will bring this war to your doorstep..." Much of the satisfaction in watching "Supremacy" is that his adversaries underestimate Bourne's prowess, and think they are "badder" than he is. They are educated accordingly. In this way Joan Allen is effective as Pam Landy, who grows to respect Jason Bourne as the best. Period. Acknowledge Matt Damon. His Bourne is a tortured, explosive, smart, and totally empathetic hero. Damon has a powerful and quiet presence. He got in great shape and conditioning to play the role. His martial arts fighting sequences are excellent... when you can see them. This is one of things that could have been better in the movie. Greengrass's quick cut, music video style editing does not do justice to the fight scenes. The choreography looks sharp, but one can't really tell. This is really a personal bias. As a martial artist, I was interested in seeing the details of the cool knife fight sequence. Regardless, one can tell that Damon trained very hard for the fight sequences. Greengrass's style did however, make the final car chase scene the most captivating in recent movie memory. It is amazing.
"The Bourne Supremacy" is an intense, uncompromising spy thriller with strong performances. Matt Damon is awesome as Jason Bourne.