rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States, Germany; 2004
Directed by Paul Greengrass; produced by Patrick Crowley, Frank Marshall, Paul L. Sandberg; screenplay by Tony Gilroy
Starring Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Brian Cox, Julia Stiles, Karl Urban, Gabriel Mann, Joan Allen, Michelle Monaghan
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
After the enjoyable 'The Bourne Identity' I had high hopes for this sequel,
again based on a book by Robert Ludlum. In some ways I was satisfied with
the result, in more ways I was a little disappointed. Not that this is a bad
film; compared to most other action thrillers this is pretty good stuff.
This film starts with Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) finding the girl from 'The
Bourne Identity' named Marie (Franka Potente), probably to live happily ever
after. Of course this is not what happens. He is found, has to run,
discovers he is framed for an CIA operation gone wrong and has to become
again the man he once was: a trained assassin with the purpose of surviving.
We meet the same CIA people from the first film including Ward Abbott (Brian
Cox), Nicky (Julia Stiles) and new woman named Pamela Landy (Joan Allen).
While they are searching for him, he finds them first.
'The Bourne Supremacy' is entertaining with its intelligent story, at least
more intelligent than most action thriller stories. Again I liked Damon as
Bourne, Brian Cox and Joan Allen are reliable as always. I also was
pleasantly surprised by Stiles. With the first film I was actually wondering
why she was in it, here she is very important and has a main part in the
best scene. I hope her part will be even bigger in the next film starring
Jason Bourne. Since I have not read any of the books by Robert Ludlum, most
of the time a good thing for films like this, I am quite curious what her
role will be in Bourne's life.
Like I said I was disappointed in things as well. First of all 'The Bourne
Identity' is simply a better film, probably because it felt new there. The
cinematography also bothered me. Here the camera is constantly moving, with
shots that last no longer than three seconds. In some action scenes that
works, in most of them it does not. We can hardly follow the action which is
too bad since it seems, between the short cuts, pretty good. When a film is
hard to follow there is a chance people grow tired of it, lose interest. I
did not, but I can understand when some people will. Still, it is
entertaining and I am actually looking forward to film number three.