Bourne Supremacy

Wow, was this a hard movie to watch. I've been reading Ludlum novels since 1980, so as one might imagine, I have some degree of loyalty to the storyline. The BS (my nickname for the Bourne Supremacy) has nothing to do with the book under the same title, other than the main character's name. Surprisingly, that doesn't hurt it much. The storyline in the movie is well thought out and put together convincingly. It doesn't have a lot to say, but it did have a lot ground to cover, and the movie moves right along smartly, not dwelling overly long on traveling (about 9,000 miles covered in this movie), or talking (only 2 chase scenes and 2.5 martial art sequences, so the majority of the film was either talking or seeing the characters under stress).

So what made this film so hard to watch? It wasn't the plot, so was it the acting? No, it was the camera work. It's been said by many, but the camera work was really bad in this film. The handheld non-stabilized mini-cams used in this film really are it's downfall. The Director (Paul Greengrass, generally did an excellent job, but the camera work in this film may well be his downfall. It was an experiment gone awry. I don't mind *some* camera shake to imply frantic motion, but the non-stop out of focus camera sweeping movement actually made us feeling sick to our stomachs. And worse, you couldn't see what's going on! Here is a screen shot from one of the High Resolution trailers on the official website:


Can you see how blurry and out of focus this movie is? About 50% of the movie feels like it's filmed this way. It really subtracts from the whole experience.

One of my favorite scenes from the first movie was the knife fight scene where the bad guy gets his bones broken and eventually tossed out the window. As much as I still dislike the pubescent Matt Damon playing this role, his technical execution of the fighting sequences were excellent. In BS, they might be, but we'll never know for sure.

On to the acting:
Other than being 15 years too young to play this character, Matt Damon does a great job, and I enjoy watching him in it. The other standout performance is from Brian Cox, playing the 29 year veteran CIA case officer Ward Abbot exceedingly well. His role was fairly transparent, but his acting was top notch. I felt that Joan Allen's role was far too stereotypical and forced to be believable.

Overall, I give the move 3 stars out of 5, with a huge asterisk about the cruddy camera work. It's not that it's bad camera work per se, for it was very purposefully done, but it should never had cleared the first screen test.

Have an opposing view? If so, you might enjoy these comments.