Satisfying but has some weak areas

Rating: 7/10 (6 August 2007)

I love this trilogy, and as seems to be typical with series, those that come after never live up to the first, and I feel that's the case here. The Bourne Ultimatum did deliver; it's non stop action, but I feel that's a bit of a sell out. This story could have had much more depth and character, as the first did, which is why I liked it in the first place.
For example, they could have shown us what Bourne had been doing with his life since the last film, but they didn't show anything. Basically, there was very little dramatic story here; it was all action sequences strung together. I feel that's a cheap way to go. They could have really dug deep to give the audience more story for all that action, but didn't. Also I knew there would be plenty of violence in this one, but didn't like how much of it was graphic in the extreme. It doesn't take talent or skill to show someone getting their head blown off, and is it really necessary to show intense fight scenes resulting in murder, time and time again? They went way overboard with it in my opinion. Sometimes "less is more".
And one thing that I always find annoying is this hand held camera crap. It might seem suitable for a low budget documentary, but for a film of this size? I felt all the camera shaking was ineffective and detracted form the picture.
The film did satisfy, especially at the end, I thought it was brilliant. But I would have shot it very differently.