New ‘Bourne’ delivers
chills and thrills

At the Movies
By Senitra Horbrook

Jason Bourne is the best of the best when it comes to escaping death. No one — and nothing — can stop him. He can jump through glass windows, jump from building to building, and walk away from a nasty car crash with just a few scratches.
Unlike many of the franchise flicks released this summer, The Bourne Ultimatum doesn’t lose any steam. I’d even go as far as to say it’s the best of the trilogy. The movie series, which also includes The Bourne Identity (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004), are based on a series by Robert Ludlum. It is best to have seen Identity and Supremacy before seeing Ultimatum, otherwise you might feel a bit lost.
That is not to say you won’t enjoy this film if you haven’t seen the previous two. The plot is not difficult to ascertain, but the third movie picks up where number two left off, with references as well to some events from number one.
Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is an assassin for the CIA who is suffering from amnesia. He doesn’t understand why he can kill with such simplistic ease. He can see the faces of those he killed, but he doesn’t remember their names.
The films take him around the world as he tries to discover his identity. In The Bourne Ultimatum, Bourne goes globetrotting from Russia to Paris to London to Madrid to Tangier to New York. There are some shady people in the CIA who are trying to hide things and regard Bourne as nothing but a liability who must be taken out for good.
One of my favorite scenes in the movie came toward the beginning, when Bourne tracked down a British journalist (Paddy Considine) writing about him and a CIA operation known as Treadstone. Bourne creatively navigates the reporter through a busy train station while trying to keep the both of them away from CIA snipers as he tries to get information from the writer.
However, not everyone is against him, and he finds some surprising allies. Bourne runs into Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) while he’s in Madrid. Parsons, a CIA agent, and Bourne travel to Tangier, Morocco, to help him find someone who may have a key to his past. Nicky jeopardizes her own position to help Bourne, possibly because she has romantic feelings for Bourne, but that is not really explored.
As Bourne comes closer to learning the truth, the more danger he faces. Another CIA agent, Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), also plays a surprising role here.
My one criticism of the movie is that the camera is a bit shaky during many action scenes. I think director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy and United 93) does the shaky camera work, using handheld cameras, to make the movie feel more real, but it does get somewhat distracting.
Other than that, as an action movie, The Bourne Ultimatum excels. The body count piles up as Bourne is forced to kill. Even with Damon’s lack of dialogue, it is still easy to see how conflicted Jason Bourne feels, wanting to learn his true identity. Matt Damon is a true leading man here and a hero the audience can root for throughout.
The movie wraps up Bourne’s identity crisis quite nicely, yet the ending does leave open the possibility of another Bourne movie. Based on how well this movie was made and acted, I don’t think too many people would be opposed to seeing another. That is, as long as it can deliver the quality that fans of the series have come to expect. ••
Movie Grade: A-