Pretty Good but not a "Top 250"....

Rating: 10/10 (12 August 2007)

I saw this on Saturday in a full house of Bourne enthusiasts and I have to say that the first 30-45 minutes had me enthralled. The story was compelling, acting was great, and the camera was alive in a way that really drew me into the story.
Somewhere about half-way through it, though, it began to get repetitive and the bond that had developed between me and the movie was broken, and I found myself thinking, and questioning some of the logic and "tradecraft". Now these are small things but I'm going to mention them here because eventually they became problematic for me.
First of all -- major plot point -- after the car bomb Jason Bourne goes to New York because in the wreckage of the dead guy's briefcase he sees a scrap of a top secret cover sheet of a "Blackbriar" file that has the actual address of the "deep cover" CIA NY Anti-terrorism unit on it. Guys, I've got to tell you -- no way.
Secondly, when Nikki Sparrow comes into the Madrid sub-office Noah and company KNOW there are two dead or unconscious bodies there, minimum, and Jason Bourne somewhere in the area. Yet when he does the "authentication" question: "are you okay" and she has a choice "ruby" meaning "I'm under duress" or "everest", I'm okay -- it's silly that she says "everest" and they just accept it. A), Bourne would understand and they would know he understands the drill, B), whether Bourne is there or not, it's certainly not a normal situation. This goes on a bit as they, after this scene, just ignore Nikki and leave her with access to all systems even though they would have to be very concerned that she's not controlled any more.
Thirdly -- I'm no CIA specialist but over the years one thing that is clear is that the CIA doesn't put sensitive offices on the outside of buildings in Manhattan where there is line of sight into the offices. Yet in this movie (and all the Bourne movies), he always manages to get on a roof across the street and can look right into Pam Landy's office (or Noah's). This is great dramatically but I think it would work better if the film-makers made it the way it really is -- with sensitive offices being buried deep within the bowels of a building (particularly if it's a city building) rather than on the perimeter.
Anyway -- my point is not so much to take issue with the film-makers on these points, but rather to illustrate that the repetitiveness caused my mind to wander into these areas rather than stay locked in the story.