parallels

Rating: 8/10 (11 August 2007)

When we Americans need a break from the depressing news from our inept violent actions around the world, we go to the movies and see six previews for new violent movies, before we settle in for a violent feature like The Bourne Ultimatum. Ahhh, nothing like a little light entertainment. Gee. I don't understand why we're misunderstood in the world.
The movie, its action sequences & its music are certainly well beyond anything in the tired James Bond series, but the backstory here turns out to be flimsy & ridiculously insufficient to have put the violence & actions of the 3 movies into play. We find out who Jason Bourne is in a scene so underwritten that one has to guess that his original motives were well-intentioned. Or as I was thinking; 'Poor dumb thing... How could you be so naive?' The movie would be better without this scene.
And it's here the movie unintentionally parallels the real world and makes the same painful point we're relearning in Iraq; the efforts and intentions of the young and patriotic can be warped & misused for sick, corrupt, personal & political reasons; until say, a stupid backwoods girl is holding the leash of a naked prisoner and going to jail as a scapegoat.
At the start of the war, naive people were warned that they were being used, but they didn't listen and lambasted people's patriotism. Now the same people tell me it's my duty to "support the troops." Well I'm more knowledgeable than you; I don't let myself be used by corrupt politicians. It isn't the nations job to make you feel better about the ill-conceived decisions you make, which help ruin the reputation of OUR country abroad. I am disgusted by the deaths and injuries the young are withstanding after willingly placing themselves into this war. They have my deep sympathy, but some lessons come at a high price.
For Jason Bourne, it's a dead girlfriend (Film 2 in the series) and a lost memory. I enjoyed the movie but how can people question so little, before offering their services as a killer?
Only three things in life are inevitable: death, taxes and the misuse of the naive.
BTW - What ultimatum does the title refer to? - Joan Allen has had a truckload of facial work done. You won't even recognize her. It's creepy.