Still-Bourne

Rating: 6/10 (27 December 2004)

Matt Damon reprises his role as former-agent-now-with-amnesia Jason Bourne, who finds himself being shot at while in India with his lovely wife, Maria (Franka Potente). Who's trying to kill Jason? Another former agent? The mob? The U.S. government? Bourne wants answers, and the improbable path seems to lead to the CIA and a now-dormant super-duper-secret organization.
The CIA wants to kill Bourne, because they believe he killed two of their agents. Bourne, as in the first film, still needs to know who he is, who's trying to kill him, and the relevance of the name Treadstone.
Fans of the first movie will likely enjoy this second film, but fans of the second book (by Robert Ludlum, don't ya know) will be mystified, since the movie takes only a few basic elements from the book. Which is a shame, in my estimation, because the second book was pretty well packed with action and intrigue. The movie makes up for this by including a quite lengthy car chase during the final third of the film.
Perhaps a different director (Paul Greengrass instead of Doug Liman, who executive produced) explains the change in pacing and tone; Bourne seems the same, which is good, but less seems explained, which is bad. Also, the action scenes are so fast cutting that it's sometimes impossible to tell what's going on.
Damon still looks the part, and he does a very good job in the role. We don't see enough of Franka Potente, unfortunately, but we do get to see the great Joan Allen as the CIA official out to get Bourne. The ending's a bit too pat, rendering a lot of the plot meaningless. All in all, it's a good time waster, just not as engrossing as the original