Great acting, great story, shame about the direction

Rating: 6/10 (6 September 2007)

I love the Bourne series, books and films, and so it was with great expectations that I went to see Ultimatum, the latest in the series. Imagine my extreme disappointment when I discovered this great story had apparently been shot on a Handycam by a cameraman with a nervous twitch!! Why is it that some directors (often quite decent directors!)feel they have to resort to the very amateurish appearing "live cam" approach. Don't get me wrong this method has it's place, usually as a crutch for tired TV shows in an attempt to make it look as if there is more going on than there actually is, but when you have such an action packed script and great actors, like in the Bourne Ultimatum, why go there? A pet hate? perhaps, but I do find this particularly annoying during still (i.e a normal conversation around a table) or heartfelt (when an actor or actress is expressing some inner feelings) moments and the camera goes twitching and wandering off subject as if being held by a bored child desperate to go wee wee! Completely unnecessary and detrimental to this good (could have been great!) movie. Rant over. On to the movie itself; As I have already intimated the Bourne Ultimatum is an action packed romp with a great cast, some excellent understated acting and a fairly credible story to tie all the action together and could have been one of greatest action flicks of all time, a strong 9/10 - it's such a shame about the desperate direction hence only 6/10 from me.