A big success with awards bodies, an okay movie

Rating: 6/10 (13 January 2020)

"The Bourne Ultimatum" is an action thriller from 2007 and there are so many countries involved in the production as well as languages spoken during these almost two hours that I will spare you the details. If you are fluent in English, you should be fine without subtitles. This film is from 2007 and the director is Paul Greengrass, a really experienced filmmaker. The most influential writer here when it came to adapting the novel into a screenplay was Tony Gilroy and his effort here was briefly before he scored his two Oscar nominations. For another really good political film, but I shall elaborate on that one on another occasion. This one here is of course all about lead actor Matt Damon again. He was in his mid/late 30s at that point and he will turn 50 soon now in 2020. This was the third time he played Jason Bourne, about whom we find out that he originally had another name before he joined a very special unit. I shall get to that later. I watched this movie without having seen the first two installments and it worked out well. The only slightly negative aspect here is that you get some spoilers about the previous works, especially involving Franka Potente's character, but as for the new story here, it is really not required to have seen the other films. Actually, the first Bourne film I ever watched was the new "Jason Bourne" a little while ago. So not chronological at all on my part. It's alright though. I will probably check out the other ones at some point, but not really soon. This one here was not good enough to truly get me curious. They are showing all Bourne films (also the one with Renner, an actor I like a lot) right now at my local theater and this one here is the only one that truly caught my attention because it won three Oscars: two for sound, one for editing, and that is quite an achievement, especially because it "only" had these three nominations. Also I think rating-wise it is the highest here on imdb. So I thought why not give it a go.
The cast also includes some interesting names. David Strathairn is really always good and even if I am not too happy about how the character, how he was written in detail and how they made him look a bit stupid at times next to Joan Allen's, it is always nice to see him. Joan Allen's is depicted as the really gifted and strong-willed female agent, who is ready to catch Bourne, but not at any cost if it goes against her integrity. Which it does eventually and that makes her somebody who is not an antagonist anymore, but almost somebody who helps Bourne or at least makes sure he has a fair chance and nothing is going to happen to him that is not in accordance with the law. Same about Julia Stiles' character, actually there she even really protects her. This is maybe her most known movie still. She is not a love interest (I guess Potente's character is still on Bourne's mind too much), but the character that comes closest to that description. They have been in touch before this film and they help each other in getting away from the guys who want to kill them. The best example is Bourne's fight with the one guy he cannot take out in seconds because that one seems to gain the upperhand in the fight and there Stiles' character intervenes and helps Bourne to turn things round. The fight against this guy (Desh was his name) is also among the more memorable moments from the film. I would say that story-wise I was not too happy about the idea that Bourne does all he can to find out where he is from and why he doesn't remember. Or actually I should say I liked the idea, but the execution not too much. Also the scenes with Albert Finney left me rather unimpressed towards the end. It is rather the individual scenes that make an impact, like also for example early on the scenes with Paddy Considine's journalist character at the station where Bourne instructs and guides him in a way to make sure he is not found by the ones on his trail. That was really tense and the moment when the film gained a lot of steam. Before that, Daniel Brühl gets a brief scene, but he feels a bit wasted here. Anyway, back to the station scene: Even if it was good, it always feels a bit in a way where Bourne is too much of a superhero almost with all he sees and how he is constantly in control of everything and of course also when Considine's character dies, it was because he acted out of impulse and did not listen to Bourne. So it is a really fine line with the realism component sometimes being neglected a bit for entertainment and thrill purposes.
One thing I liked was the parallel at the end between the scene when we see Bourne swim into the unknown and the scene very early on when we see Bourne's love drown. That was pretty smart and a nice framework somehow. Takes more than that to kill Jason Bourne. In general, this film has some pretty good attention to detail and it shows that the director and the writers know their craft. I shall give you a few more examples, such as when Bourne is all of a sudden at Strathairn's character's office and the line about how he knows the guy is lying was really funny I will admit. He definitely made Strathairn's character look like a fool there. Here and there, we got a moment that could put a smile on your face and actually one guy in my audience enjoyed it so much that you could think it is also partially a comedy movie. But no, it is not. It's more about the coolness being entertaining enough. Still, like I said earlier, it really walks the fine line there between entertainment and authenticity. I mean isn't their workplace a really restricted area? Could Bourne simply walk in there and nobody realizes it? This also applies to basically the entire Neal Daniels story, like how they find out it is him there at the agency seemed a bit hard to believe like how they recognize the smallest details that lead them on his path and I honestly find it a bit hard to believe. These were the moments really that kept this film from being a big hit and a movie that I would consider among the finest from 2007. Technically, there is probably nothing wrong with it. The Oscars speak for themselves. This also applies to the guy who wouldn't take the shot at Bourne up there on the roof and how basically everything is solved almost and how Strathairn's and Finney's characters are brought to justice also felt rushed and for the sake of a forced hapy ending. I somehow also like Damon usually more than I did here. So there are flaws about this film, but I guess if you liked the previous two, then it's worth checking out. Probably more of a guy movie than a girl movie if such categorization is fair. I would say give it a go, although yeah it is probably unlikely that you have seen nothing else from the franchise when considering checking this one out, so you can make your mind up for yourself. I give this one a thumbs-up, which was never in question really, even if it is not an enthusiastic thumbs-up because for example how Bourne travels the world always with enemies on his tail never felt as interesting in terms of locations like it does for example with Bond, a franchise that I am certainly a much bigger fan of.