The Bourne Stupidity

Rating: 3/10 (12 December 2007)

Somehow I was roped into believing this installment would be better than the previous two, which I thought were grossly overrated. I was duped again. It's amazing how many people think this movie, and the whole series, is quality. It's awful. From the first one to this one, the plot is unnecessarily convoluted, hard to follow, and filmed in a relentlessly frenetic pace, as though to camouflage a story that lacks excitement to begin with. It's all far fetched espionage gimmickry that requires a heightened suspension of disbelief. None of the characters are likable, and Damon is majestically milquetoast and boring. The plot is basically a prolonged chase scene, embellished with telecommunications gadgetry, spy-tech mumbo-jumbo and instantaneous escapes to various countries. We're supposed to think a lot is happening, and the tension is supposed to be building. Wrong. I was starting to fall asleep, actually. We're also to believe that because of multitudinous European locations, the movie must be sophisticated. But the most irritating element to the movie was the herky-jerky photography; again, seemingly meant to fool us into an on-the-edge-of-your-seat mindset. All it did was annoy me, and remind me of stupid forensic cop shows on cable TV. And the flashback scenes were laughably amateur, as well. How this movie has such a high rating here is beyond me. The whole series of Bourne films belong in the garbage bin. They comprise one muddled, disjointed, uninspired and ultimately stupid story that should have been saved for the writers strike to replace a few CSI episodes. Brutal.