Best of the Bournes

Rating: 9/10 (8 August 2011)

Doing away with the whole hand-holding innocent civilian tag along effect that slowed down the original, this sequel concentrates on mind-wiped secret operative Jason Bourne, as he outsmarts the entire black ops wing of the US government at every turn. With the premise set completely by the first movie, Supremacy is free to quit worrying about the setup and dive right into fierce action sets and weighty plot developments. Though I noted several scenes that were more than coincidentally similar to the original, they were each amped up several notches and paired with enough original material to retain a unique identity (no pun intended). The story does a fine job of picking up on the dangling threads of the original and wrapping them all up into a rewarding, conclusive finale. There was a bit too much shaky-cam in the action scenes for my liking, but this was still in theaters when that concept was fresh and I must admit that, used sparingly, it lends a slightly more believable look than you'll get from the classic polished Hollywood fight formula.