Re-Bourne

Rating: Null/10 (1 August 2004)

"The Bourne Supremacy" came off of me similarly as the first one: well-done action-mystery thriller. Most of the all-star cast returned, led by the rising action-acting hero, Matt Damon. Lovely Franka Potente put in her share of the work, followed by more screen-time (in a good sense) by Brian Cox and Julia Stiles. Joan Allen (thankfully) tied up the other end of the supporting cast rope, holding the audience's attention the same way Chris Cooper did in its predecessor. Production values raised the stakes with various locations all around the world instead of a select few in the first movie. Working off another good script from Tony Gilroy despite significance divergences from the adapted Robert Ludlum book, Paul Greengrass ("Bloody Sunday") succeeded in recapturing the fast-paced essence of Jason Bourne created by Doug Liman, who (at least) stayed on as executive producer this time around. However, a possible downfall to this crew change is Greengrass's realistic, sometimes dizzying style of hand-held cameras to use as the eyes for the viewers. Unfortunately, it blurs some of the action sequences, rendering them difficult to comprehend and leaving some to gasp for breath (and steadiness). Nevertheless, good character development coupled with effective storytelling makes up for that disadvantage, and what you get is an entertaining 2 hours of thrills. Hopefully, the producers would keep this cast and crew together to make a Bourne trilogy. =)