Saw this movie last night. Another very, very good movie. I think I have to move the Bourne trilogy into iconoclast status ... either right ahead or right behind the Indiana Jones trilogy (soon to be quadrilogy).
I've loved this series because it's an action film for grownups. I have no idea if what they do in the films is real (the technology etc.), but they go to great lengths to make me suspend my disbelief. They use (more or less) the names of real organizations, use real backgrounds, and I'm not asked to swallow cartoonish action (like Die Hard, which I respect because there is no pretense). My only complaint would be how good does Jason Bourne have to be to take out an entire fleet of CIA assassins? Did they go to a different school? Is Bourne on steroids?
The acting in the third one follows a line of that started in the first movie -- stiff to stiffer. It's interesting since I was at least somewhat familiar with every actor in all three movies before they got there and didn't see a casting that I was not thrilled with. I guess it's stiff in a proper way ... not in a Steve Segal way. I've seen moments where I felt Matt Damon was possibly the best screen actor of his generation. And then I've seen moments where he was as stiff and as much of a camera mugger as his best bud Ben (did anyone see Dogma?). In this one I think he keeps it almost entirely appropriate, and gets across the Bourne ethic ... which is an assassin who has regained a conscience if not his memory.
The fight scene is one of the best I've ever seen. Two other classic action sequences were in the back of my mind the whole time: the Matrix lobby gun battle and the freeway car chase in the French Connection. Considering the predominant use of the hand held, I have to think the fight scene was a very long homage to the chase scene in French Connection, which (and this is absolutely true) was filmed in real traffic, on real streets, guerrilla style. That scene was not only illegal, one has to question if they were endangering lives. This one had that feel ... very real, as if we were watching some live-action pursuit and not a movie, only the fight sequences were as good as any Chinese wire routine -- but again, creative without being cartoonish. I felt like I was watching highly trained hand-to-hand combat.
Speaking of the hand helds, not since Blair Witch Project have I felt as seasick during a movie. It was a bit much, with more blurry shots than your average community college student action film. They did it on purpose, yes, but I think when I become aware of the camera angles and it takes me out of the story, they've failed at least a little at what they were trying to do. Well ... they always quickly drew me back in, so I'm not going to complain any more than I have here.
Halfway through this film the wife and I had already decided we were going to buy the box set. It was that entertaining.
One passing comment: Man, everyone got old! Did anyone else notice how exaggerated everyone's face lines and hair looked? I don't know how old Scott Glenn is in real life, but he looked like he might have one foot in the grave. His face looked like he'd just come out of a 40-minute rinse cycle.
