Rate The Last Movie You Saw

To get this out of the way right off the bad, my reactions to the original Bourne trilogy could be described as being a bit up-and-down; The Bourne Identity was a decent first movie, but it really didn't distinguish itself all that much from the rest of the espionage action pack went, and Ultimatum was a strong "last" entry in the series, but it still didn't feel like Jason had much of anywhere left to go as a character in it. So, all of that leaves The Bourne Supremacy as my current favorite in the trilogy, as I've always felt that series-newcomer Paul Greengrass injected a huge dose of much-needed adrenaline into the franchise with his intense, visceral directorial style, while Tony Gilroy's screenplay brings in a new, unexpected focus on character and pathos, resulting in what I can only describe as one of the best action movies of the new millennium, in my humble opinion.

Picking up two years after the events of Identity, Supremacy opens up with Jason and Marie hiding out in India, with Bourne beginning to recover some of his memories from his time as assassin, with the fragments of an "assignment" he carried out in a Berlin hotel casuing him to suffer from many a sleepless night. However, following a botched CIA exchange that seems to have been sabotaged by Jason himself, and a fellow assassin's subsequent tracking of Bourne to his hiding place, Jason is forced back into action, both to clear his falsely-accused name, and as well to avenge Marie, who tragically payed the ultimate price for daring to fall in love with him.

However, compared to other Action movies, Supremacy really doesn't have all that much, er... ACTION, in it; there's one brutal, drawn-out fight-to-the-death at the halfway point, and one of the best car chases in recent memory during the climax, but besides those, there really aren't any other significant action scenes in the movie. However, Greengrass doesn't need a bunch of mindless violence to keep our interest here, as he utilizes raw storytelling energy to keep the tension piano wire-tight, always keeping the plot moving along in a concise, ruthless fashion, never pausing for breath unless it suits the scene, as he always has something of relevance happening or being set up here for later.

We discover new information only as the characters themselves do, and always see things from their perspective exclusively, which combines with the film's atmosphere of paranoia, intrigue, and conspiracy to make us feel like we ourselves are constantly being hunted, which makes the movie feel like a shark in that it never, ever stops moving, and I couldn't be more thankful for that. But, another major factor that distingushes Supremacy is how unexpectedly personal it is, as unlike in the first film, where Bourne was just a lost, confused amnesiac, he has a much more immediate motivater this time around, after the murder of his girlfriend, Marie.

This is what brings him out of hiding, but her death doesn't just serve as some generic "fridging", but rather, her memory lingers on within Jason, as he remembers how she wanted him to move on from his previous life of death. This is why Bourne only seeks justice for her murder, instead of revenge, and the various ways Bourne struggles to honor Marie's wishes throughout adds a lot, whether it be his refusal to kill the men responsible for her death (although he still brings them to justice in other ways), or finding the time while on the run to track down the orphan of his first victims, so he can tell her he's sorry, and that he now understand what it it feels like to lose someone. However, if that sounds overly sentimental in theory, it doesn't in practice, as Greengrass tackles it with the same level of craft he does everything else, keeping it in balance with all the other elements that he so expertly juggles here. As I said before, The Bourne Supremacy is overall an unusually intelligent, efficient, and focused spy thriller, and, as far as I'm concerned, is one of the best Action films of its decade; "Bourne again" indeed...

To get this out of the way right off the bad, my reactions to the original Bourne trilogy could be described as being a bit up-and-down; The Bourne Identity was a decent first movie, but it really didn't distinguish itself all that much from the rest of the espionage action pack went, and Ultimatum was a strong "last" entry in the series, but it still didn't feel like Jason had much of anywhere left to go as a character in it. So, all of that leaves The Bourne Supremacy as my current favorite in the trilogy, as I've always felt that series-newcomer Paul Greengrass injected a huge dose of much-needed adrenaline into the franchise with his intense, visceral directorial style, while Tony Gilroy's screenplay brings in a new, unexpected focus on character and pathos, resulting in what I can only describe as one of the best action movies of the new millennium, in my humble opinion.

Picking up two years after the events of Identity, Supremacy opens up with Jason and Marie hiding out in India, with Bourne beginning to recover some of his memories from his time as assassin, with the fragments of an "assignment" he carried out in a Berlin hotel casuing him to suffer from many a sleepless night. However, following a botched CIA exchange that seems to have been sabotaged by Jason himself, and a fellow assassin's subsequent tracking of Bourne to his hiding place, Jason is forced back into action, both to clear his falsely-accused name, and as well to avenge Marie, who tragically payed the ultimate price for daring to fall in love with him.

However, compared to other Action movies, Supremacy really doesn't have all that much, er... ACTION, in it; there's one brutal, drawn-out fight-to-the-death at the halfway point, and one of the best car chases in recent memory during the climax, but besides those, there really aren't any other significant action scenes in the movie. However, Greengrass doesn't need a bunch of mindless violence to keep our interest here, as he utilizes raw storytelling energy to keep the tension piano wire-tight, always keeping the plot moving along in a concise, ruthless fashion, never pausing for breath unless it suits the scene, as he always has something of relevance happening or being set up here for later.

We discover new information only as the characters themselves do, and always see things from their perspective exclusively, which combines with the film's atmosphere of paranoia, intrigue, and conspiracy to make us feel like we ourselves are constantly being hunted, which makes the movie feel like a shark in that it never, ever stops moving, and I couldn't be more thankful for that. But, another major factor that distingushes Supremacy is how unexpectedly personal it is, as unlike in the first film, where Bourne was just a lost, confused amnesiac, he has a much more immediate motivater this time around, after the murder of his girlfriend, Marie.

This is what brings him out of hiding, but her death doesn't just serve as some generic "fridging", but rather, her memory lingers on within Jason, as he remembers how she wanted him to move on from his previous life of death. This is why Bourne only seeks justice for her murder, instead of revenge, and the various ways Bourne struggles to honor Marie's wishes throughout adds a lot, whether it be his refusal to kill the men responsible for her death (although he still brings them to justice in other ways), or finding the time while on the run to track down the orphan of his first victims, so he can tell her he's sorry, and that he now understand what it it feels like to lose someone. However, if that sounds overly sentimental in theory, it doesn't in practice, as Greengrass tackles it with the same level of craft he does everything else, keeping it in balance with all the other elements that he so expertly juggles here. As I said before, The Bourne Supremacy is overall an unusually intelligent, efficient, and focused spy thriller, and, as far as I'm concerned, is one of the best Action films of its decade; "Bourne again" indeed...