I believe that it takes a certain level of genius to depict a genius character

Rating: 9/10 (29 August 2018)

I believe that it takes a certain level of genius to depict a genius character showing how intelligent he or she is. It's one thing to declare a character as "genius", as many stories do, without it ever being shown in his or her actions or words (beyond cheaply throwing in the occasional "big words"). But it's a whole 'nother when the intelligence of the character is plainly visible in front of your eyes.
Much of the credit for this goes to Robert Ludlum, the author of the Bourne novels, for creating the character and the story in the first place. After coming up with the scenario and overall theme, Ludlum had to ask, at every single corner of the story, "What would this genius do next?" He had to become and think exactly like the character Bourne, who is very intelligent. It takes intelligence and creativity to get in the mind of an intelligent character like that.
In fact most of the characters in the entire film are pretty smart, and convincingly so. This is a tough thing to achieve in the film world; when it's done poorly, it's fairly transparent and the character just doesn't seem bright even though he or she is depicted as such. It's the lack of intelligent writing (and perhaps acting) that makes you feel that they just aren't what they're portrayed to be.
This is why Tony Gilroy, the screen story writer, gets a large portion of the credit as well. He has displayed that he knows which bits work better just left to the book and which were translatable into film, and carefully sewed together a modified version of the story that just works better in a film context than the book's would have.
I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of Paul Greengrass's directing style as a whole; the intentionally shaky camera can feel a bit gimmicky and sometimes even amateur. But I also must say that he was a smart choice for director of this particular film. The style fits the fast pacing and there's something about the very raw, quick feel about it that works well. The cuts give you the sense that there's no time for breathing room, because there basically isn't. Bourne has a mission and can't waste a single second. It never really gets slow or boring; it constantly grips your attention.
One very subtle thing I love in this film is the extremely unspoken romance between Bourne and Nikki Parsons, played by Julia Stiles. Fitting with their personalities and jobs, they both don't reveal a single word of it but you can just feel it's there, especially when Stiles delivers the line "With you, it was ... difficult..." You know what she really is saying there, but they never reveal anything directly beyond that.
To top all of it off, the film offers some of the slickest fighting in the past decade. Excellent choreography and once again just plain intelligent, not just on Bourne's end but also his opponent's. He is, of course, going up against some of the most highly-trained killers alive, so naturally they have a different kind of smarts about them, combat.
This film just plain and simple delivers intelligence in almost every arena: story, writing, acting, characters, choice of director, fighting, and certainly plenty of CIA "intelligence". All the qualities that make the Bourne trilogy great it does the best. Best movie of the trilogy.