Bourne is entertaining but soulless...The film is the same

Rating: 6/10 (5 September 2007)

Fans of Robert Ludlum remember Jason Bourne as a tortured character, faced with a shadowy and violent past. While serving in an elite CIA undercover mission, he suffered trauma rendering him without an identity. Throughout the stirring trilogy, he unearthed the various monikers he had used as cover, only one of which was named Jason Bourne. The action-filled books allowed for the type of self-examination and introspection that only occurs when one no longer recognizes the self that was. Fans of the movie version of the Bourne saga might be surprised that the stories ever delved deeper than blood, guns and car chases.
That being said, the movies are plenty entertaining. In the transfer to the big screen, the stories went on a sort of no-carb diet, leaving the scripts with only minimal references to the book's larger and considerably more complex plot. Yet, by not including the devious plot twists, the filmmakers broke the golden rule for a successful franchise: hook the audience to come back. After meeting Bourne (Matt Damon) in "The Bourne Identity" in 2002, we learn most of what we will ultimately be revealed in "The Bourne Ultimatum." Unless most of the movie-going public is satiated with action un-propelled by characters' doubts emotions, it is a bit of a mystery why these movies have been as successful as they have.
But, barring a thorough sociological study, that question must remain a philosophical one. Still, embedded between extended fight scenes, using faster film to emphasize Bourne's inhuman speed, characters hinted at issues for today's world. In fact, Jason Bourne fits the profile of a terrorist. He is dead set on exacting revenge on the organization that left him despaired, disoriented and physically disabled: the Central Intelligence Agency. He is also a ruthless super-killer who seems unstoppable by even the most elite tactical agents. His enemy is a special office within the CIA that deals exclusively with top-secret, high-priority killings, evoking the real-life reports of CIA programs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Noah Vosen (David Strathairn), the CIA Deputy Director, is installed at the head of this program, code-named Blackbriar. Convinced that everyone is trying to betray him, he ominously muses, "It ends when we've won." In fact, at that moment, his coworkers were trying to betray him, so rather than question the irrational, extremist tactics of the CIA, the film justifies them.
Still, if Bourne comes off as the world's most potent terrorist, the CIA appears as the most powerful terrorist network. They have surveillance anywhere they wish, and there is little institutional compunction for civilian lives, nor even for those considered friends. Throughout "The Bourne Ultimatum," Bourne suffers debilitating flashbacks of sleep deprivation and simulated drowning, known as water-boarding  the CIA was responsible for Bourne's torture, before he suffered the head trauma.
Given this sense of moral disorientation, the film verges on a powerful critique of the military underworld, one that is largely unknown to the general public. Instead, the film offers us a lone, grounded character in a swirling world of deceit. The film's Jason Bourne, in sharp contrast to the one in Ludlum's novels, comes off as the only sure thing in an uncertain world. The audience cheers for him to bash in equally merciless and anonymous foes, most of whom are CIA employees, and to avenge his battle wounds, which may have been self-inflicted. What exactly are we cheering for? Ultimately, the hit men he fights are born of the same mold as he  lethal robots that kill without questioning. Is the joke on us, for siding with a monster, innocent though Bourne seems? Possibly, the movie turns the mirror on ourselves  as we fund the CIA to pursue indiscernible enemies, do we even care who does the dirty work? In the film's last breath, after what seemed like endless, and superfluous, double-crossing and truth-revealing, there is a brilliant burst of potential. In the final scenes, without giving away the ending, the filmmakers took a leap at the type of vague finale that shocked, and frustrated, audiences of "The French Connection." Yet, as this movie is marketed for an audience raised on endless action franchises and television, the producers could not resist teasing for a fourth installment  this reviewer is likely to be Bored.