Bourne Supremacy, The

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Back in 2002, Matt Damon was not considered to be as bankable as his good friend and co-Oscar-winner Ben Affleck. In fact, Affleck was given the relatively easy task of carrying a franchise movie ("The Sum of All Fears"), while Damon headlined a movie loosely based on the first book in a trilogy written by Robert Ludlum. While Ludlum was a successful writer, he wasn´t in the same commercial league as Tom Clancy, John Grisham, and Stephen King. Therefore, "The Bourne Identity" wasn´t a high-profile release, even though the source novel had already been adapted as a TV movie. Since the studio and director Doug Liman clashed a lot, there were legitimate concerns that the movie would be a compromised and low-profits product. However, Damon´s spy movie outgrossed Affleck´s spy movie, and "The Bourne Identity" became the top-renting title of 2003.

"The Bourne Identity" deserves every penny that it has generated. (Well, an exception might be made for the Explosive Edition DVD since the first Collector´s Edition DVD was more than adequate.) It is such a good movie that I had very high expectations for its sequel, "The Bourne Supremacy". After all, several members of the first movie´s creative team were back, and the trailers for "Bourne 2" were nifty and exciting. When I saw the movie on its opening day (23 July 2004), I was surprised that it not only exceeded my high expectations but is also one of the best spy thrillers ever. I guess the movie´s opening weekend exceeded Universal´s expectations, too, as several studio representatives have been talking about its initial $52 million take as being phenomenal.

The events in "The Bourne Supremacy" take place two years after the events in "The Bourne Identity". Jason Bourne (Damon) and Marie (Franka Potente) are living in Goa, India. An assassination prevents the CIA from obtaining documents that could shed light on several shady deals involving Russian businessmen. The bad guys frame Bourne for the assassination, the CIA wants to kill Bourne (again), and our hero has to go to Berlin, Germany and Moscow, Russia in order to clear his name. Also making repeat appearances are Ward Abbott (Brian Cox), Nicky (Julia Stiles), and Danny Zorn (Gabriel Mann). Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) is the latest CIA leader to become interested in removing Bourne from the spy-ring equation.

Being a spy thriller, "The Bourne Supremacy" offers its own selection of action set pieces. There´s a car chase at the beginning of the movie, there´s a man-to-man fight involving innovative ideas such as a rolled-up magazine, and there´s a foot-chase through Berlin at night. The characters are also engaged in a tense cat-and-mouse game as the CIA tracks Bourne while he tracks everybody else. Before its final third, I considered "The Bourne Supremacy" to be a decent action flick. However, the last set piece, a car chase through the streets of Moscow, makes the movie one of the best action movies of the new century. In Russia, Bourne finds himself being chased by policemen and members of the FSB (formerly the KGB). The camerawork, the editing, and the sound design make you feel exactly what Bourne would feel at every turn--what it feels like to be blindsided, what it feels like to be pinned to the side of a tunnel, what it feels like to swerve and smash your way free of traffic. We´ve seen countless car chases by now in 2004, and it´s amazing that a movie can still raise the bar (without resorting to CGI effects!).

There are those aforementioned spectacular action sequences, of course, but the movie´s attention to character development raises it from visceral entertainment to involving drama. Aside from the fact that she is incredibly sexy in the movie, Joan Allen exhibits chilling toughness (when she declares her willingness to let Nicky die if her death will mean catching Bourne) and pragmatic warmth (during the final scenes) when appropriate. Brian Cox is always good as a sly bureaucrat, and Karl Urban (Eomer in Peter Jackson´s "The Lord of the Rings") makes a strong impression as a Russian spy who´s Bourne´s equal. Julia Stiles is a grace-note presence again, though it´s appropriate given how the moviemakers have paid so much attention to making the movies feel connected (i.e. the related plots, the re-appearance of actors and their characters, the use of the same song by Moby for the end credits, etc.).

The interesting thing about Bourne himself is that, though he´s still not sure of who he is, Damon manages to play the character as a conflicted soul who´s trying to do the right thing in the midst of intrigues and deceptions. You get the sense that Bourne genuinely loves Marie, and there´s a great scene towards the end of the movie that has Bourne apologizing to someone for his brutal past. While tough and gritty like the movie itself, Bourne is also a multi-faceted, dimensionalized creation.

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