More cheap shots at the CIA

Rating: 6/10 (19 January 2009)

Having just watched the Bourne Supremacy recently for a second time, I must confess that I was a bit disappointed in The Bourne Ultimatum, the third installment in the Bourne series. The Ultimatum is basically a continuation of The Supremacy. It has all the good elements of Installment #2 which include a series of memorable chase scenes. The opening chase scene where Bourne (unsuccessfully) attempts to save a British journalist from being assassinated is deftly choreographed as Bourne and his hapless charge try to escape from CIA goons and a shadowy hit-man in Waterloo station in London. The second excellent chase scene is shot in Morocco as Bourne attempts to save a CIA operative played by Julia Stiles. That scene is shot in two parts with Bourne following a CIA hit-man on a motorbike and then later on foot through the winding streets of Tangiers. The chase culminates in a violent fight to the death between Bourne and the hit-man. The final chase scene which packs punch is shot in New York City as Bourne breaks into CIA headquarters and steals incriminating documents from the safe belonging to a high level deputy chief played by David Strathairn and then eluding his pursuers by driving his car off of the roof in a parking garage (it looks like all the Bourne movies must end with the obligatory car chase).
The plot in the Ultimatum is a bit clearer than in the Supremacy. It seems that Operation Treadstone has now been replaced by Operation Blackbriar, which basically represents an escalation and expansion of the malicious and illegal CIA program. This time the stakes have been raised: it's the CIA director and his chief Deputy themselves who have the primary responsibility for the program's operation in contrast to the lone traitor in the CIA's midst, Abbott, who committed suicide at the end of The Supremacy.
If you feel it necessary to criticize the CIA, why not utilize a fair and balanced approach? Unfortunately, the writers of The Bourne Ultimatum stack the deck with comic book villains which suggest that the higher-ups at the CIA are all odious bad guys. Don't they do any good at all? What about the fight against international terrorism? According to the Bourne Ultimatum, the people who give the orders at the CIA have went way beyond their mandatethat the use of torture is common and is used not only on opponents but on their own agents (as evidenced by the brainwashing of David Webbnow Jason Bourne). In the comic book, black and white world of The Bourne Ultimatum, leave it to (a now redeemed) Jason Bourne along with his two leading ladies (Joan Allen and Julia Stiles) to fight the out of control CIA bad guys.
Despite the specious subtext of The Ultimatum, with its juvenile view of the CIA and how it operates, The Bourne Ultimatium is still a slick and well choreographed action flick. I'm downgrading The Ultimatum to a "6" as opposed to the "7" I gave to The Supremacy. Let's hope that the producers decide to rehabilitate the image of the CIA somewhat in the fourth installment of Jason Bourne. I'm a registered Democrat but I loathe cheap shots.