Great movie, just buy a steady-cam

Rating: 9/10 (27 July 2004)

Bourne Supremacy is a very entertaining movie. Granted, I'm partial to films set in Europe involving international espionage (or something to that effect). Matt Damon, as the anti-action hero action hero, performs well, as do the other principals, though the movie is definitely all Damon's. He does a great job making the character believable given the rage barely contained beneath the professional assassin's cold demeanor. The plot and action move along at a nice pace and the requisite no-escape situations that Bourne manages to get out of with skill and guile are always great to watch.
I have to comment on the camera work. While I get what the director was trying to do, the action camera (in fight scenes and car chases at times) is way too amateurish. I can understand the desire to make you feel like you're some guy sitting in the passenger seat or in the same room as a fight and you're trying to keep up with the action but, please, let's try to keep the action visible in some form. All too often, directors seem to think shaking a camera around translates directly into a feeling of being there in the fight, making it more exciting. But, just like Michael Bay's little light reflector/camera swivel trick he likes to use, it does nothing to add to the tension of the chase or fight. Plenty of directors have put together beautiful action scenes with a fairly steady camera, fast edits and just plain good action. There's no need to make it impossible to truly follow the action by taking a camera and just flailing it all about. The car chase sequences seem to be better off only because the director/cameramen probably couldn't shake the camera as much going 80 miles an hour.
This is definitely a fun movie to watch and enjoy. It helps a bit to have seen the first movie but just knowing that Bourne is a former CIA "super" agent that came out of a program called Treadstone is probably enough to get by in this movie. Oh, and be prepared for a nice prolonged car chase in Moscow that, once it finishes with a bang, makes you realize just how long you might have been holding your breath. :)