A worthy follow-up...

Rating: Null/10 (24 July 2004)

Yes, everyone is justifiably poo-poohing the epileptic camera work, but still this is a tight, well-honed and crisply edited action flick that is far from being obsessed that it is an action flick.
Damon quite ably reprises the role of Jason Bourne, an amnesiac CIA operative "in the cold" who is alternately attempting to escape and to run back to his past. This is his metier--he simply doesn't work for more darkly textured characters like Tom Ripley (a movie that would have otherwise been excellent had they chosen an actor more capable of pulling off a good schizo).
Bourne's constant status of being on the run is more effectively played out this time and it builds the intensity to a great pitch. By the end of the movie you're pretty exhausted.
To boot Bourne is a far more likable anti-hero than in most movies that favor them. He genuinely wants to confront his past and somehow redeem it -- and he substantially succeeds. His "spy tricks" are more fun and interesting this time and you get a deeper sense of how good he really is, a kind of cultured Bruce Lee who is ultra-savvy.
Let's address the camera work. A friend of ours happened to be at the movie and we talked about the camera work--the first thing she said was she genuinely had a headache. That's how wild it is. Trying to simultaneously keep your eye on and absorb some of the action sequences (and there are many very good ones) is horrible. The angles are simply way too tight and the camera follows the action within these incredibly tight angles. The car chase sequence at the end is one of the best I've seen on film (sorry but I think "Bullitt" will always remain the gold standard), but it is marred by the camera following the action rather than the action following (or coming into) the camera. Some scenes are deliberately confusing--such as when Julia Stiles gets lost in the crowd with Damon--and in that instance the herky-jerky-camera-worky works.
Still, excusing the choice of camera work, this is a fine action movie. Damon has hit his mark. Though "The Bourne Supremacy" ends cleanly enough to end the series I wouldn't mind seeing this turn into a franchise, though I think it would lose some of its appeal without the exotic locales (vs. most American or Canadian locales) that really add to the texture of the movie.
Easily a worthwhile $8-$10 popcorn flick.