Bring ample barf bags

Rating: Null/10 (23 July 2004)

(A disclaimer: I really liked the first movie in this series and am also a fan of its director Doug Liman's work in Swingers, Go! and Bourne Identity. That being said...)
The most important thing anyone should hear before going to see Bourne Supremacy is a warning regarding so-called director Paul Greengrass. I have never before so wanted to walk out of a theater and punch the director for such nausea-inducing camera work. He directs like he's playing under something like basketball's 3-second rule - even for a 15-second scene where one of the characters does something as mundane as answer a telephone we get six 2 and 3-second cuts from 4 or 5 different perspectives, all shakier than a bad TV movie-of-the-week about the next big California quake. I am not sure we got any one shot that lasted more than 5 or 6 seconds IN THE ENTIRE MOVIE! (Well, maybe one, underwater in India.) Someone else in these forums aptly compared the experience to having your head strapped to a paint can shaking machine at your local hardware store. It's been 2 hours since I left the theater and I am still feeling dizzy. Thank you, Paul "Warning: Seizure-inducing" Greengrass!
If you can tolerate the shaky camera work and were a fan of the first installment, Bourne Supremacy is worth seeing, but nowhere good as its predecessor. To be sure, the same stellar cast returns and even adds two talented actors in Joan Allen and Karl Urban. The movie jet-sets around to many exotic locations and includes the requisite amount of fights and car chases, plus some interesting plot twists.
The problem is it contains no character advancement or even sincerely-felt quiet moments that let the audience emotionally connect with its stars. The first movie had Jason and Marie's well-told budding relationship, several well-acted supporting roles (e.g. Chris Cooper or Clive Owen) that demonstrated the emotional cost of such a deadly career, and effectively put the audience in Jason's amnesic shoes as a mystery unfolded. The second movie has...well, action, just action really, with only two notable scenes with any emotional impact at all (one in India, the second Moscow - I can't say more or risk a spoiler). In Bourne Supremacy the characters all end the movie as the same person they are when it began, unless, of course, they wind up dead.
Jason Bourne's defining characteristic in the first movie was that as events heated up around him he grew progressively more calm and clear-sighted. There is not a calm moment in Bourne Supremacy, the director and script don't allow it, which makes me wonder how little they think of the audiences' intelligence or attention spans. It merely succeeds in advancing the plot, content to grab a free ride on the emotional merit earned by its predecessor. If I hadn't come to care about the characters in the first movie, Bourne Supremacy would be just another forgettable spy thriller with supremely annoying camera-work.