Movie Review: The Bourne Ultimatum

Movie Title: The Bourne Ultimatum
Starring: Matt Damon, Joan Allen, David Staithairn, Julia Stiles, Edgar Ramirez and Scott Glenn.
Directed by: Paul Greengrass
Genre:Action/Thriller/Mystery/Adventure
My Rating: 9/10

This just might be the first time in film history that a threequel (part 3 of a franchise) is the best one of the trilogy! Ultimatum's predecessors The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy were brilliant action movies as well, but part-3's depth and execution ruled them all. By this third movie we've come to accept the movie will be different from the book (again) - to suit current political conditions and aftermaths, as well as technological advances. The first movie disappointed many fans of the book due to the story change, despite the kick ass action. The second movie had better locales (Goa in India to start with, thank you) and a smoother progression. Yet Ultimatum has to be the best entertainer of the summer this year, and I'm glad for the same.

While attempting to minimize spoilers in this post and others to come, I'll still say that the movie starts not after where the last one ended, but 10 mins before the ending of Supremacy. Jason Bourne (Damon), the ex-CIA hitman who's conscience had him fail a mission and woke up with amnesia after floating in the Mediterranean sea for a little while, starts to remember his training days and induction into the "Treadstone" program of the Agency. Information of Bourne's background gets "leaked" to a British journalist and lands up on the papers in the UK, which awakens Bourne from his exile once again, as well as the CIA guys working on Treadstone's upgrade, called "Blackbriar." The cat and mouse game between the agents, headed by Vosen (Straithairn, another great performance) and Bourne. BUT - it continues to be confusing who the cat is and who the mouse is. If Bourne is the mouse, he's the Jerry to Tom. After a failed attempt to capture Bourne, Pamela Landy (Allen, who made Supremacy better than Identity) is called upon to advise them on Bourne's moves and signals.

The chase continues to Spain and Morocco, with great cinematography and car chase scenes. Bourne runs into his old colleague at Treadstone, Nicky (Stiles, wooden as ever) and she surprisingly ends up helping him.

The two hit-men sent to get Bourne were nothing short of bad-ass. Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez (from Domino) was way colder than Clive Owen in the first movie, and Joey Ansah played the Moroccan operative like the hero of a B-grade martial arts movie. Veteran actor Scott Glenn played the CIA director, and fared decently in his short role, so did Albert Finney as Bourne's old trainer.

Matt Damon just established himself an ideal action movie star. I did miss Franka Potente and Julia Stiles was the only actor that didn't impress me much. However, I say thank God for Joan Allen being in this movie. If Damon was the protagonist, she was the backbone of the entire movie, best support an action movie can get.

Okay, I better cut this short before any more potential spoilers. Go watch it if you haven't yet. I'm going to buy the DVD, for sure. Maybe all 3 now. Hmm..

9.25/10 - my Nestle frozen chocolate drink went very well with that! :-)