Shaky

Rating: 5/10 (27 August 2007)

=== The Good Things First ===
Some compare Jason Bourne (his real name is revealed in the movie) with 007, and some even find the "Bourne-approach" better. I agree with both. From my perspective, Matt Damon is perhaps the perfect actor for his role. Stunnning Julia Stiles (Nicky) is the perfect Field Logistics Operative and Joan Allen (Landy) is the perfect CIA Senior Operative. I wouldn't trade these three actors for the world.
Matt Damon is the perfect choice because he is good looking yet isn't buffed up by steroids. He looks and behaves intelligent in all three episodes. He behaves like an average guy when possible and certainly isn't a womanizing sleaze-ball like many other hero's. He doesn't need much words to explain things, yet it's clear what he means.
Julia Stiles. In the first episode the crew gave her some remarkable make up. In later episodes she looked increasingly average. Too bad. She's pretty anyway, but the way they did the make up the first time gave Nicky a special flair. In episode 2 the "woman part" was gone somewhat. And in part three - Ultimatum - she just looks like a girl. She should have looked like a responsible young woman - not girl.
Joan Allen gives us the impression that she's a rock solid, slightly old fashioned mature woman. She's the perfect choice for her role (Landy).
Another good aspect is that no ridiculous gadgets are used. No laser beams,spaceships, time machines or anything. In fact, the CIA Directors actually need to explain the use of their funds to a political hearing committee! Standard 9 mm pistols are used, along with bottles, pens, towels, a simple rifle (with scope), rented safe houses and fixed-income cars without a built-in flux capacitor.
Also, no annoying exaggerated love scenes occur and standard Hollywood techniques like "let a guy die otherwise the story becomes too complex" are not used as well. I highly value that.
=== The Bad Stuff in General ===
The good guys are still up for a fair fight. Hollywood needs to learn that a fictive hero like Jason Bourne shouldn't engage fair battles. Let him back-shoot for the love of God! For some reason Hollywood doesn't like that. Hollywood producers and directors are known for their lack of social courage. I'd bet that if Jason back-stabs a murdering traitor, no audience is going to be bothered by that. In fact, it would have made Jason Bourne even more of a professional: a multi-million dollar trained assassin.
Also, in general, in all three episodes I didn't like the lenses and filtering.
=== The Bad Stuff in Specific ===
Shaky camera. Way too shaky this time. The Shaky camera technique is often used for two purposes: 1) To give the movie an extra level of realism. 2) To hide incompetence.
The latter, was too obvious. To me it's clear that Matt Damon can't fight whatsoever. So they hide it with an extremely shaky camera. The solution is simple, rent an expert and guide him throughout the making of the movie. The rest is up to the camera team and editing. This movie has the potential to become the most interesting spy movie, and also to become the most interesting close combat movie as well. The latter was neglected, although close combat is a very important aspect of all three episodes.
Here's another thing that bothers me: Bourne is a bad actor I feel - although his appearance shows tons of potential. The best example of bad acting is to be seen in episode one (Identity) where he sits on a bench in the park in Switserland: "Ich wil schlafen (I want to sleep)". This type of acting is typical Matt Damon. I believe the director could have directed Matt better. But I do have to say in part three - Ultimatum - this was a little better hidden. But it was especially hidden because of too much camera shaking.
=== Verdict ===
The shaky-cam has too much impact, therefore I rate this movie 5 out of 10 stars. A most promising idea was ruined by the camera job.