Ultimatum features Jason Bourne, professional agent

Rating: 10/10 (13 August 2007)

This rates up there with Godfather in terms of successful 2 & 3-part movies. Their success has a lot to do with Matt Damon and both directors, Doug Liman (Identity) and Greengrass (sequels). While each movie can no doubt stand on its own, I can't imagine why anyone would want to see one without knowing the others. To appreciate Jason Bourne's full character arc, you have to start with the full amnesiac Jason, who Damon probably plays as David Webb--respectful, smiling at times, boyish--until he's put under pressure and Bourne takes over.
Anyone seeing this movie cannot be late. The opening sequence in Moscow is thrilling and beautifully filmed. The pulsating Bourne music that accompanies him trudging the the snow, the camera focusing on his feet, is to die for. Those who know Supremacy well, immediately realize that we are being shown what happened after he confessed his misdeeds to Neski's daughter and left her apartment. He had been shot earlier by a KGB agent, whom he probably killed in a devastating car crash. The Moscow police are still after him, and Bourne must elude them. While this opening scene is not as incredible as the bridge/train chase scene in Supremacy, it is almost as intense. A perfect way to get you charged for this film.
I happened to like the first half of this movie better than the last half. The scenes shot in Waterloo where he is trying to help a naive reporter who's been caught up in drama he doesn't understand is the perfect stage for a highly trained professional like Jason Bourne. This is his business. If you are ever caught up in a situation with Bourne, you'd be really stupid not to follow his advice. His instincts are always spot on.
We also see a hollow man. His scenes with Nicky contrast sharply with those in which we've seen him with Marie. He picks up on Nicky's hint that perhaps they had a thing at one time, but Jason is still grieving Marie. And he now accepts that anyone associated with him is a target. Compare the scene in Identity in which he sat in a restaurant with Marie wondering why he would have a gun, multiple passports, and so much money in a safe deposit box to the scene with Nicky in the cafe where he is practically speechless and emotionless. Later, Nicky learns from Bourne that she'll have to run. She dyes her own hair and cuts it, too. Bourne once did that for Marie himself, after which they fell in love. Bourne simply escorts Nicky to a bus stop and sees her off.
I wish Straitharn and Scott Glenn had switched roles. Glenn would have been a better villain against Bourne. He's a real hardass. Straitharn plays his role like he's a bookkeeper.
I liked the Desh fight scene only because it showed Bourne as a professional at work, committed to destroying his adversary because it's his business. He doesn't recoil in horror after killing him, as he did in killing scenes in Supremacy. He's resigned himself to who he is as Jason Bourne, what he's forced to do to survive. And in the scene where he looks through Neil Daniels' burnt belongings, that big watch on his wrist, he looks like a g-man, investigating the evidence as he's been trained to do. He takes command wordlessly and imposes his authority instantly. This Bourne characterization is brilliantly played by Matt Damon, a character transformation as brilliant as Al Pacino in Godfather.
Yes, you really have to see all of them to appreciate one of them fully.