Not the greatest action film out there, but worth seeing.

Rating: 7/10 (9 April 2015)

Though there are certainly better spy movies out there, this is in the upper half of spy movies I've seen. It's not perfect in any regard, though it does some things that other movies of its kind do not. I felt like it was a half-step up from Identity, and far better than the disappointing Legacy. I don't know how well it sticks to the original novel, but I also haven't heard anything criticizing it in that regard.
I'll start with the disappointments. Though I didn't feel like it detracted too much, Bourne's motive of discovering his past is touched upon only lightly in this sequel. There are a few brief flashbacks and even a scene at the end where he apologizes to a girl who's parents he killed before his amnesia. Another potential letdown is the editing and cinematography of the action sequences. The thing that disappointed me the most about the movie was that the government agents chasing him were given a very standard script. I kind of feel like a movie such as this should be above the worn out government employee tone that all of them use. Exchanges such as "Who's giving him orders now?" "Scary version? He is." did not improve this. Fortunately, Boure does not have such duologue like that.
The story is not one that you can predict, nor is it overly interesting. This is mostly accounted for by the action driven plot, where you don't need to know why a fight is going on, only that Bourne is the good guy. Consequently, the plot can get a little confusing at times. Although he is at the center of the plot, Jason Bourne does not progress it very much. Rather, Pamela Landy and her agency try to bring Bourne into custody while dealing with problems within their agency, mostly caused by Brian Cox's character. One plot driven scene that I thought was pretty interesting and different was the scene when one of Landy's subordinates demonstrates how Bourne was set up in the beginning sequence in Germany. By the end, we can kind of see how Jason Bourne has gained "supremacy" over his adversaries by always being one step ahead of them and thwarting their every move.
There are very few main characters, and none have an exceptional amount of depth. Bourne's character is advanced a little as he starts to realize that he caused a lot of pain before his amnesia. The death of Marie at the beginning also gives him some consistent depth. Pamela Landy obviously has strong motives and isn't really an antagonist, but isn't someone that you can sympathize with either. Brian Cox's character is definitely the antagonist, and you can tell that he's trouble right from the start, though his villainy is not revealed until later.
The action has some distinctive highs and lows. The best sequence, in my opinion, was the fight at the apartment in Italy because it was displayed clearly enough that you could follow it, and it was just a generally solid one on one brawl. Several of the times when Bourne single handedly takes out security guards or some other government worker with a superior firearm were also executed well and added to his "supremacy". However, the extended chase scenes, particularly the car chase at the end, could have used a bit of work.
The acting was slightly above par, with the best performance coming from Damon. As stated previously, the editing and cinematography could definitely have been better. John Powell's exotic score was at about B level. The directing was pretty good with the city scenes.
One could argue that it's not as good as Identity because of the storyline, but it's easily better than Mission Impossible 2 and 3, both of which were pretty big letdowns. That said, it's not at the same level as Casino Royale, my personal favorite spy film. In all, it did a decent job, but could have improved in a couple of spots. Overall Rating: 8.3/10