Motion sickness Picture

Rating: 5/10 (3 August 2007)

From the first few minutes of this film and until the sorry end one thought dominated every other. A question, 'why can't the camera stop shaking?' How much coffee did the camera operator have? Did he have Parkinson's? Was there and earthquake? Why, after having paid good money to see a movie, am I compelled to close my eyes to relieve my nausea? This film was very deliberately made to look like it was shot by a hyper-active twelve year-old with a brand new camcorder and a fascination with zooming. Regrettably its becoming a fad in movies today. I'm not against a hand held camera, its just another color on the cinematographers palette. But a one color painting? I'm not against intentional camera shaking. It has been used to great effect in Star Trek, for example, to simulate a hit from the Klingons. With Bourne Ultimatum, whatever chase or shooting or car crash on the screen was in direct proportion to the spinning and jerking and zooming of the camera. More action = more blurry shakes.
BU was like one of those irritating shows that has music in every scene from start to finish. Why is that done? To create a sense of drama where the visuals and acting have failed to do so.
Apparently Paul Greengrass was insecure about his ability as a director and resorted to this cheap gimmick in order to give the movie a kind of first person reality feel. It was either insecurity or pretentiousness that would explain his ignorance or contempt for all of the conventions and innovations of movie making, like steadicam. Sitting in the theater I found myself thinking, not about the movie but about the director, 'what is he trying to do?, why doesn't he respect his audience?' From the back rows of the stadium seating I looked down at the couple of hundred other people there. They had paid to be there like me and I could see them all, transfixed, looking at the screen above them when I had an uncomfortable thought about what suckers we all are.
OK apart from the tremor-cam I give this movie five stars as part three of a trilogy. If you liked Bourne 1 & 2 then you might like this one. Its like eating yesterdays leftover pizza. Its the same thing but not fresh and its cold. There is no "warmth" to this movie. No romance and not a single likable person and not a single smile until the very end. As a stand alone movie it falls completely flat. We don't find out anything about what Bourne thinks or feels until fully three fourths into the film. All we know is that Matt Damon is having some bad flashbacks and he is going to find out why and beat the crap out of anyone that gets in his way.
Also, before the movie starts we are told to turn off our cell phones, evidently so we can devote the next two hours to watching people talk on their cell phones. Yes,in this flick, there is a lot of cell phones and LED screens and the video game feel is unmistakable. My advice, stay home and play a video game or read a comic, but if you must see this movie, take some Dramamine before.