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“The Bourne Supremacy - Few sequels come close to their...”

written by 80smetal4ever on 19/08/2004

Good Points
Matt Damon does another excellent job as Jason Bourne. Good fighting. Good music. Good story.

Bad Points
I didn't think the acting by the female lead, who played the director of US intelligence, was believable.

General Comments
The Bourne Supremacy - Few sequels come close to their original in quality, if the first film was any good. Fewer than that can be considered better movies than the original; Aliens comes to mind. The team behind this movie has done a very good job.



Matt Damon puts in another fine performance as Jason Bourne. He has been programmed by the US government to be a killing machine. In the first movie, The Bourne Identity, he had lost his memory, and was trying to figure out who he was - and why he had so many specialized skills. In this film, he again is the "anti James Bond". He doesn't concern himself with being well dressed, bedding the best ladies, or being suave with the one liners - he just gets the job done. For a man with not a large build, he can cause a lot of damage just with his bare hands.



At the end of the last film, we saw Jason and his girlfriend on some local, tropical island paradise. The sequel starts of with them both living peacefully somewhere on the coast of India. Jason has decided to stay there until they are spotted, and then he will find a new place to hide. He had warned the US government before, "don't come after me, and I won't come after you".



Jason still has nightmares and visions, as well as symptoms of the brutal training which included mental and physical enhancing drugs. He writes everything he can remember down in a journal to try and piece it together at some point. There aren't too many of his kind, the "superagents" from Project Treadstone left alive. If they haven't died from the inner struggle of their brain against the repressed memories - they've either died while chasing Bourne, or by Bourne killing them.



The Deputy Director of the CIA, Pamela Landy, is working on a project in Berlin, Germany. Her sting operation goes very wrong, and somehow they find a fingerprint that leads them to the profile of Jason Bourne. The CIA holds a special meeting with Pam and Ward Abbot (He was Uncle Argayle in Braveheart). Abbot is the last senior advisor to Project Treadstone, since the main director has died since the last film. The CIA bosses decide to send them both back to Berlin to begin to hunt down and kill Bourne.



One of the first things the new CIA team does is hunt down former operative Nicky, played by Julia Stiles. Looks like they asked Julia to gain some weight for this film. She has a much rounder face than usual, and wears a scarf in most of her scenes. They ask her what her role was in Project Treadstone. She was to monitor their health, because of all the issues that could arise: headaches, stress, going out of control, etc.



While all of this is going on, Jason has spotted someone stalking him. They get into a car chase, and Jason's car ends up going off of a bridge with him and his girlfriend in it. The bad guy, decides most of them must be dead - so doesn't pursue. Turns out he was hired to kill Jason, and he told his Soviet boss that he was dead.



Jason is furious, as he blames the CIA for the attack. He thought that he had negotiated a truce with them. Somehow, he shows up in Italy. He is being detained by a CIA agent there. Just when you wonder how he is going to get out of the situation, he takes the agent's gun, and beats up the guard in a flash of action. He also is a whiz with gadgets. He downloaded this agents' palmpilot/phone, into his own phone within 30 seconds, and then he escaped.



He tracks the CIA team to Berlin, their center of operations. He goes to a nearby building, and sets up a sniper rifle with scope, and he can look right into the CIA's war room. That seems a little hard to believe, but it was a nice effect. He asks to have Nicky meet him, alone in a few hours. When Pam says, "What if we can't find her in that time"? - Jason says, "It shouldn't be too hard, she's standing right next to you". That was SOLID! Pam has no idea how good Jason really is, and Ward keeps trying to tell her that she is out of her league on this mission.



Jason gets the info he needs out of his one on one meeting with Nicky. He finds out why they are after him, but also explains to Nicky that he didn't do it, and was in India at the time.



The rest of the movie involves the CIA looking for, finding, losing, and finding Jason Bourne again and again...There is an incredible car chase scene involving Bourne and a secret service agent from Russia. It took me back to the "superchases" of yesteryear, like Steve McQueen in Bullit, with the green, fastback Mustang chasing after the Black Charger. Very good stuff.



Throughout the movie, Jason is trying to put together this one memory he has of a mission he did one time in Germany. Nicky told him that it isn't in his file, but he knows that he did it. When he finally solves that puzzle, the film is almost over.



Just like the first Bourne movie, the very end of the film is good. While these movies have been based on the books of Robert Ludlum, this movie did not follow any of his books. They started to use one of his books as a guide, but midway through - decided they had a better idea of how to go. It works for me, I rate this film an 8.5/10. I hope Matt Damon makes at least 3 more of these films. They are action-packed, have good storylines, good acting, and quality music.