Big production with no place to go

Rating: 3/10 (22 August 2004)

I saw Bourne Identity and was impressed with its originality and well thought out story line that kept us interested in more than just its action scenes. Unlike the original, the sequel has no mystery to it and originality was lacking, covered up with too many chase scenes done by a what felt like a nervous cameraman. The film missed on many fronts. There was no character building in this movie, just bursts of too many borrowed and typical action scenes and several characters with very little to do.
The plot was weak, riding on the momentum and success of the original film. It's about a corrupt CIA officer working with the Russian mob to control the Russian oil business. So, in order for the bad guys to get away with their scheme, they implicated Bourne (retired in India) for the robbery and killing of CIA agents and now they wanted to kill him to cover up their plot. How original! It's a major detour from the original story about a highly trained killer who, while in search of his own identity, encountered many interesting and character building events/exchanges. The sequel was filled with long, unnecessary, overdone and boring chase scenes with highly predictable twists and turns. It was like watching the Terminator, Robocop and James Bond put together in a marketing ploy to attract/con as many viewers as possible and charge them up with cheap thrills. The movie is nothing more than a long game of cat and mouse with very predictable results. Jason Bourne's character was filled with contradictions with no real mystery to it or interesting developments. He kept getting himself into tricky situations and, as expected, kept outmaneuvering everyone else in every country. The character never really evolved and never captured our interest. It just impressed us with its over done and old action skills. I never felt close to it, just expected it to perform. It was like watching a skilled athlete performing in a game, impressing us only with his athletic skills.
The chase scenes were too many, too long and too unnecessary. The photography was shaky with too many close-ups, bumps and deadly collisions, perfect for headache buildup. It's like someone was trying to distract us from realizing that this movie's plot was weak. They figured if we walked out it with a good headache, we may not be able think about it artistically.
The acting was weak and undisciplined with over-dramatization of the dialogs and exchanges. Some characters (like the therapist) were weak and didn't fit well in the plot. I've always liked Mat Damon's acting, but he should've passed on this one. Although he did a good job portraying Bourne's character, Bourne's character did a poor job living up to his skills. The ending was typical of a feel good movie where all is well that ends well. The bad guys die in a disgusting way and the good guys/gals prevail and go on to manipulate our emotions with a mooshy ending, setting up the stage for another sequel.