Another Part Three Anti-Climax for this Summer

Rating: 6/10 (20 September 2007)

Let's get the big question out of the way first. At no point in The Bourne Ultimatum does the eponymous amnesiac assassin offer anything that could remotely be construed as an ultimatum.Of course, by this, third film in the lucrative franchise, the plot is so far removed from Robert Ludlum's trashy page turners that there is really little similarity beyond the title. While this is not, in itself, a bad thing, it does highlight the essential flaw with The Bourne Ultimatum that sets it beneath the quality of its predecessors. While in the original Bourne Identity, director Doug Liman was able to craft a more compelling plot by building around the central kernel of Ludlum's premise, something Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass continued in the sequel, The Bourne Supremacy, this film seems curiously bereft of any driving force, giving the plot that much needed momentum in between some, admittedly very exciting, set piece moments.
With Identity, the fact that the film suffered many re-writes and re-shoots probably served to strengthen the final product, here that same troubled production is a sign of a film with no strong drive to the plot. Although Greengrass does a strong job of tying Ultimatum directly in with Supremacy with the opening scene beginning straight after that film's crunchingly brutal car chase and the course of this film taking us through from there to a point where it meets up with Supremacy's New York set final scene, how it gets there is much less interesting and gripping than the previous films would have you expect. Meanwhile, the actual final confrontation is extremely anti-climactic with Albert Finney miscast and underused as the scientist responsible for programming Bourne as an assassin. The final revelations are such that they add nothing and tell you no detail you had not already assumed. There are at least some more intelligent and complex roles for David Strathairn and Joan Allen as the senior CIA operatives tracking down Bourne while disagreeing over their methods and Bourne's motives. These two are the only characters in the film that feel real and their interplay is a high point implying that there is a much better film in there that Greengrass could have made.
Much has been made of how the revitalised James Bond of Casino Royale owes a lot to Bourne's earlier outings and, if this is the case, then it is also apparent that Ultimatum owes a debt to Bond in some of its lesser parts. The film's plot is little more than a series of action sequences in exotic foreign locales, strung together by clichés and conventions and an excess of mobile phone usage. Where Casino Royale at least had flawed and vulnerable central characters to anchor the padding in between these sequences (something of a rarity in a Bond picture), in The Bourne Ultimatum it is hard to find sympathy with any of the central figures.
Most importantly, the character of Jason Bourne himself is no longer one who excites any empathy from the audience. Identity threw us straight in with Bourne's confusion and paranoia as the relentless pace of the plot forced him to run for his life while seeking his identity. Here, Bourne's motivations appear confused and thus so is the flow of the plot. Meanwhile, the character himself, now he is aware of his past as a trained killer, is completely cold with Matt Damon's usual inscrutability as an actor allowing us no window into his thoughts and feelings. Sometimes this inscrutable quality is an asset but in a film so anchored on the one character, with the support cast mostly ciphers used to further the plot (Julia Stiles, in particular, returns only to be lumbered with a completely two dimensional role assisting Bourne's progress), having no access to his motivations makes him seem much less complex. This problem is further compounded by Bourne's complete lack of vulnerability in action moments. Where Identity and Supremacy set the character up as a more real alternative to the old school of invincible one man army action heroes, in Ultimatum, he leaps across buildings, survives bomb explosions, incredibly destructive car crashes and multi-storey falls. Unlike in the first two films, you are never convinced that Bourne is in real peril. Something that causes Greengrass to insert Stiles and Paddy Considine, unusually awkward in his performance as a Guardian journalist, into the big sequences in order to keep suspense as we can believe there is a danger for them, rather than Bourne.
Fortunately, Greengrass is still pretty capable of handling the action, although those given motion sickness by Supremacy's jittery hand held camera work will not be happy to see it return here. The sequence set inside a crowded Waterloo Station as Bourne attempts to get Considine's journalist to safety, guiding him on his phone away from the many operatives, is a classic spy movie moment with Greengrass expertly handling the tension and panic. Meanwhile, a chase across rooftops and a bloody, violent fight using fists and anything that comes to hand, a book being the standout, in a rundown Morocco apartment, is everything for which the Bourne series has become justifiably well regarded.
Something of an anti-climax, The Bourne Ultimatum delivers a decently impressive turn your brain in at the door film of action thrills, but ultimately fails in being the promised intelligent thriller that could have wrapped up this strong trilogy in classic style. ***