Almost, but not quite....

Rating: 7/10 (7 September 2004)

I found myself really wanting to like this film - the first in the series "The Bourne Identity" was a fantastic effort, an 'intellectual' spy thriller. I also enjoyed the series of books which I read quite some time ago, so I am an established Bourne fan in either format and did come in with quite high expectations.
The second installment in the Bourne series retains all of the core actors from the original which is usually a promising sign. Mat Damon is once again extremely effective in his role as the amnesia suffering, guilt wracked, reluctant super spy. My favourite scene from the movie is one he shares with Julia Stiles with Damon emanating malevolence throughout. His characters coldness is highlighted by repeated close ups of cold, threatening, ice blue eyes. Stiles also puts in an exceptional performance and I am looking forward to seeing more of that caliber from her- if only she could learn to choose better roles - not evidenced in her previous release "The Prince and Me".
The supporting cast are also good - Brian Cox has made a living out of playing the older, wise CIA chief for a while now and is always enjoyable. Joan Allen as the agent in charge is strong and almost believable as a tough agent with a heart of gold. Franka Potente seemed a little lost in this film although I do believe that her part was tragically small, she normally has immense presence on screen.
The film did start to lose me a little quite early though, with some major flaws in the internal logic of the plot. These not so little errors continued through the film and helped to take the edge off the film. One of the engrossing things about "The Bourne Identity" was its realism, something long missing from this genre. The Behaviour of Bourne in the first car crash of the movie (and there are a lot) was the first time that I groaned out loud. Why did he give up like that? Isn't he a driven man who will stop at nothing, especially where Marie is involved?
Once the plot had started to unravel a little, I found myself nitpicking. Like the three or four agents watching cameras in all exit points in Berlin.
Seriously, how many people exit Berlin every day?. Then they spotted their target, because the cloak he was wearing was dark. Again, seriously?? Not to mention the fact that the screen was in black and white! I know that these are small points, but the plot was riddled with them and it denigrated the authenticity of the entire film.
The other major issue of the film which is generating a lot of criticism (and rightly so) is the camera work. A friend described it as "NYPD Blue Syndrome" where the hand held camera work is shaky to invoke frenetic activity. Unfortunately it is out of control here, creating nothing but confusion and motion sickness. I understand what the Director Paul Greengrass was trying to portray - throughout the novels Bourne is affected by moving lights such as driving at night but is simply too much here. Some of the action scenes are ruined by the camera work and I found myself giving up on trying to follow and resorted to simply waiting till they finished to see what happened.
All that being said, I did enjoy this film. The franchise is not completely ruined (Cough *Matrix* cough) and overall it wasn't a complete waste, I just felt a little let down by the whole experience.