Has its moments is about the best you can say for it

Rating: 5/10 (18 February 2008)

Movies can either get us to suspend belief, or to view them as tongue in cheek enjoyable performances. The problem with The Bourne Ultimatum is that it takes itself far too seriously to accomplish the latter, but is far to ridiculous to get us to suspend disbelief. Ultimately, it has enjoyable sequences but falls far short of being "the best action picture in decades" which is how it is billed on the rental box.
Technically, it is well done with good camera angles, a great deal of variety, and decent acting. It is entertaining, which is always a redeeming feature. Bourne is treated as a superhero, able to leap from tall buildings, jump out of all manner of car wrecks without a scratch, dodge bullets with impunity, and otherwise perform amazing stunts with ease. The actors are good across the board, and in isolated scenes credibly portray tension, anger, and intrigue.
But the plot itself is absurd, as are the capabilities of the CIA which are portrayed. Murder for unknown reasons at the highest levels of the operation, never really explained. This is paranoid delusion, the kind of thing you expect from a stoned out hippie at 3 AM who relates how "they" are killing people left and right but only the real "insiders" know about it. Yet somehow proof is never offered, nobody ever leaks the operation, and Americans just get shot willy-nilly without a trace of integrity or remorse. At its most fundamental level, this is just another Hollywood attempt to turn Americans against the CIA. We've got people being blown up all over the world by terrorists, but the movie industry seems to be obsessed that the bad guys are always Americans who are ostensibly patriotic. This meme gets boring after a while.
What is outright ridiculous is the capacity the agency is given to have a camera in every hall, on every building, and in every street and alleyway in the world. This all gets piped in to the top secret war room as if you are right there on the scene, courtesy of some wildly concocted surveillance system that never even goes out of focus. It's a little too much to buy into even in your wildest dreams.
That would be humorous, and perhaps enjoyable if it were done with an occasional wink to the audience. Instead, it is treated as fact and becomes part of the movie taking itself too seriously for the content it is delivering.