Not Bad, Not what it could have been.

Rating: Null/10 (8 December 2004)

Rented The Bourne Supremacy last night. Now from what I hear there is a 3rd part to the series. If there is, it had better have one hell of an ending to it or I'm going to have some serious closure issues when it's over. Supremacy wasn't a bad film, but much like the first one, it left me with an empty feeling when it was over. I attribute this to the lack of a clear climax (everyone likes a good climax) thus leaving the ending a bit funky just like in the first one. There seemed to be a lot of building up, but I'm not really sure what point it was building up to. If a filmmaker does a good job you should be able to feel the flow of the story through your own emotional responses to the action on the screen.
I think they try to hard to leave things open for the next movie. To me, it feels like they are trying to make 1 film in 3 parts that you'll have to wait 3 years in between, instead of making 3 great films that all tie into a common plot or character or whatever. So far, they haven't done a good job of either. The story lines from Identity and Supremacy don't tie into each other enough. They end identity with Jason saying, "Leave me alone". OK, so you know that they aren't going to leave him alone. The Conklin guy from Identity was killed at the end. Good, evil is punished. The problem is, Abbot is the only guy left who really even knows who Jason Bourne is and could want him dead for any reason, thus identifying the main bad guy for Supremacy. It was like how US Marshals was supposed to be a spin off of the Fugitive. Not enough there to make it stick. I don't feel that there is a clear path where the next Jason Bourne movie will start. What are they going to do, not leave him alone again? Why will Julia Stiles want him dead?
Give me a clue not just his real name. That doesn't help me. It's a long wait until 2007 and I need something to pass the time until the next multi-million dollar ad campaign starts for the Bourne Finality or what ever the damn thing will be called.
Over all I found the film to be entertaining as most spy movies are to me and is pretty well made. The fight scenes and car chases are a bit hard to see and keep track of at times, but enjoyable, and anytime you can slip Julia Stiles into a movie, its going to help your cause a little in my eyes.
Just try and put her somewhere warm so she can trade the turtlenecks in for something that accentuates more of her 'qualities'. The good people at IMDb are giving this movie a 7.3 and I would have to agree with them and give it something in the ballpark of 7ish. Stand alone, its a pretty solid movie which will make me go and see the 3rd installation, which is ultimately the studios goal anyway. I don't think it lives up to the hype that the add campaign has built for it. I just hope that the final part of this story is the closer that makes this series everything that it can be, instead of just what it is.