Bourne Again

By Aaron 8/7/2007

 
The Bourne Ultimatum picks up exactly where The Bourne Supremacy left off – with Bourne (Matt Damon) running from authorities in Russia. And he never stops running, throughout the whole movie. Thinking he is finally leaving it all behind, Bourne picks up the paper to read a column about himself and a possible CIA cover-up. When Bourne inquires into the story he uncovers a new operation beyond Treadstone – Blackbriar. Deputy Director Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) benches Pam Landy (Joan Allen) and takes over – ordering his agents to shoot to kill Bourne. Bourne gets the message early, and as his memory starts to return, he begins to uncover more and more that connects him, to Blackbriar.

 
I should preface my following comments with two very important disclaimers. The first being that I had high expectations for this movie and the second being that there may be mild spoilers below – but nothing you probably could not have figured out given the story trajectory of Supremacy. One last thing – bear with me – this rant is long.

 
The whole movie “reads” like a retconned comic book. Retconned comic booking is when the writers/publisher decide they want to change an already established backstory. This happens here and way too often. Good scenes with Chris Cooper about Bourne’s training were sprinkled into Supremacy, tying that movie firmly to the first. Here, everything from Bourne’s training, to his boss, to the ending of the second movie is reinterpreted.

 
It also does not help that the movie generally “feels” like a bunch of cool action scenes patched together by locale cards and “six weeks later.” Viewers are left wondering, where is the storyline? The plot? The first two movies were intense and fast paced, but we knew what Bourne was working toward and that gave a good idea of where the movie was going to be. The only idea I was thinking about was, where is Doug Liman? The director of the first movie was able to blend Bourne’s fast paced and practical fighting style and a harrowing story of a man who did not know who he was. Greengrass just continues his helter skelter path from Supremacy – chase scene after chase scene and less and less dialogue to glue it all together. Roger Ebert agrees, putting it well when he says, “The Bourne films have taken chases beyond a storytelling technique and made them into the story.” Even the Chicago Tribune’s usually clueless Michael Philips picks up on why this hurts the movie, “Has a film's running time, in this case a breathless 115 minutes, ever involved so much actual running...[the film] barely has time for dialogue.”

 
The movie just kept disappointing. Much of my confusion arose when I thought that Bourne should have had certain information from Landry already. That is explained about eighty minutes into the movie when we realize that the first half of the movie was taking part between the “end” and the “epilogue” of Supremacy. Why does this happen? Who knows? Some of these loose ends and plot holes could have been explained, but the movie does not even try to connect the dots.

 
This was the one point in the movie where I almost smiled. Because my friends had been saying that the first two movies were so forgettable. Maybe this jived their memories. But this was more disappointing because this is what they are talking about – Greengrass gets by on run-of-the-mill espionage tricks that confuse more than they impress. Plus, it seems critics and everyone else must have forgotten how good the first two movies were if they call this movie the best Bourne.

The movie could have gotten a lot better with more Julia Stiles. I know I will read this paragraph later and kick myself, but I actually like Stiles in this role. And from the preview, and the direction Greengrass was moving toward in Supremacy, I thought she would have a larger role. Instead, she is in the movie roughly twenty minutes. They could have done a lot with her character. It is almost like the writers were trying to tease out all the nuances of her character and possible relation to Bourne, but Greengrass is shouting “no no no” at them.

 
The ending fizzles too – there is no resolution. It was known awhile ago that they brought in more writers to make sure this installment paved the way for more, but was it the plan to REQUIRE a sequel to clean up this one? The “morale” of the ending makes me wince – Greengrass should cut the politicking. To make it worse, the movie cannot even decide which way to go: criticize rendition policies or tout American counter-terrorism efforts. The muddled politics goes well with the confusing product Greengrass turns in.

 
The movies, and Bourne, used to be original. Movies stole from Bourne, not the other way around. Bourne forced other movies and franchises to adapt to the modern action movie. Now Bourne steals from Bond (Casino Royale’s parkour scene) and seems to melt into the action-spy genre. Now that my rant is over, I can admit I liked the movie in spite of itself, I just expected more, and thought the movie could be better. 7/10 Salty Stix.

The Spy Genre Rebourne

By AJ 8/6/2007

 
I was going to write an article about how I remembered nothing about the first two Bourne movies, and how the trailer looked like a bunch of generic spy-game scenes but together with no indication as to the overall plot of the final installment.  That was, however, before I saw The Bourne Ultimatum.  Let me clarify.  It's not that I didn't enjoy the first two films, nor was I apathetic about Ultimatum, I simply could not remember much about the first two movies other than that they starred Matt Damon, and that he was a spy.  I think I have to chalk it up the the fact that in the time since the release of first two, there have been a slew of forgettable “spy-game” thrillers such as Breach, The Interpreter, Syriana, and so forth.

 
That being said, The Bourne Ultimatum is anything but forgettable.  Easily the best of the trilogy, Ultimatum wastes no time throwing Bourne, and the audience, into the fray.  Jason is more or less where we left him (though I can't really remember) on the run from all types of hit men and local police, and in search of those responsible for making him what he is, an unstoppable killing machine.  Bourne wishes only to learn of his past identity and confront those responsible, however he must first survive an onslaught of hit men like himself before he can do so.

 
Ultimatum is full of all the spy-game clichés; government conspiracy, high-tech espionage, and shaky hand held cinematography.  The film gets away with so much because, quite frankly, it's really good.  Bourne seems to jump from one country to the next without hesitation.  Who has time to see Bourne board a train or rent a car?  We just want to see him kick ass.

See also: Suspension of Disbelief

The action is some of the best I've seen in a long time.  Everything looks and feels so real, from car crashes to fist fighting.  In one particular scene, Bourne faces off with an agent similar to himself.  The music drops out and we are left with only the sound of flesh hitting flesh.  I still can't believe that amidst all the mayhem, the filmmakers found the time to create an airtight story with real, well-developed characters.  As I said earlier, this film has got to be the best conclusion to a trilogy since Star Wars, and I don't mean the one with Samuel L. Jackson. 9.5/10 Salty Stix.

Could “Avatar” Win Best Picture?

By Brett Hogan

 

Last week, the trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi experiment “Avatar” debuted. While initially unimpressed with the teaser, I began to wonder: Could this film win best picture? 

 

Buzz has been generating for this movie for years. Years. The technology to make this movie didn’t exist when Cameron conceived it, so he invented it. When is the last time you heard of a director spearheading the invention of anything? The casting started in 2005. Most movies these days, even epics, are done in half that time. I could go on. 

 

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that people are saying this will be the future of movies. Now, I don’t agree with the idea that CGI will become more prevalent than it already is. But I do believe that this will set the bar miles higher for sci-fi. I mean, that is what Titanic did. And that won some awards if memory serves.

 

I’ll bet you’re asking yourself, how can you even suggest that a film like this will win Best Picture when the initial trailer was nothing better than visual stimulation? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the Academy has expanded Best Picture to ten films. This doesn’t guarantee anything other than improved chances for most films on the cusp.

 

Second, after last year’s Oscars debacle, which saw the best film of the year, “The Dark Knight,” not only get shafted in awards but nominations as well, the Academy is pulling out all the stops to appease those with the loudest voices in the film industry, the fanboys. Now, the Academy probably didn’t lose anything because of that other than some viewers of the award show. Perhaps if people are again outraged with the winners or nominees, the heads of the Academy would lose their jobs. So this is all about the Academy protecting itself, which is not so outrageous.  

 

 

Third, there is an economic motive here. I’ve heard this film will cost $190 million, not counting the R&D costs associated with Cameron’s inventions or the cost of getting 3-D cameras into every theater in the country. The Academy will do everything in its power to get people into the seats and make this the next “Titanic” or “The Dark Knight.” But the Academy doesn’t have much power, besides nominating and awarding, so they will slap the “Nominated for Best Picture” moniker onto every commercial and print ad to get the people who didn’t believe the critics to relent and see this movie.

 

Of course, all of this is pure conjecture, and no revolutionary film (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.) has ever won the Best Picture category because it changed the game. Except maybe Titanic. But still, could this movie actually win? My answer is no but a nomination is certain and who knows what could happen from there. We’ll know more come February 2010.