rc_whittle
Joined Nov 2002
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rc_whittle's rating
This review contains NO SPOILERS for this movie - "The Bourne Ultimatum". There are some SPOILERS for "The Bourne Identity" and "The Bourne Supremacy".
Firstly if you're a fan of Robert Ludlum's books don't look to the movies as a comparison. The movies follow an entirely different plot through the entire series and there is no continuity between them.
The Bourne Identity took us through Bourne's first ventures into self-discovery after waking up on a trawler without any idea who he was. The end of the story left him with his girlfriend (played by Franke Potente) romantically reuniting at her beach front store.
"Identity" was a defining thriller because it had been a long time since we'd seen a credible "secret agent" with a serious thriller tone that had a fulfilling plot and glut of fulfilling action sequences. Add to that a series of cameo characters (such as Children of Men's Clive Owen) and "Identity" had it all and rightfully has become a fondly remembered example of the genre. 8/10
The first sequel - "The Bourne Supremacy" - took us directly from the end of "Identity" where very soon Bourne's girlfriend is shot dead and Bourne goes on the hunt for revenge and carries out his threat that he issued in "Identity" that if the CIA unit that created him ever came after him he would bring the fight back to their door.
"Supremacy" desperately seemed to lack any actual "support" from the supporting cast. Whilst Damon is an accomplished actor one man rarely if ever holds an entire movie. A Russian speaking Karl Urban did little to present a charismatic bad guy.
"Supremacy" disappointed in terms of the action sequences and in terms of a fully developed plot. The lack of any role for a supporting cast almost rendered "Supremacy" a thorough waste of time. There were, however, some bright moments, and some character development.
6/10
In watching "Supremacy" in fact it was my initial feeling that I had watched a movie that was simply intended as a bridge to another sequel. I feel I was right for more reasons than I could imagine but you'll have to see all three films to know what I mean.
Cue the second sequel or "Threequel" a popular trend this year - "The Bourne Ultimatum".
I would recommend anyone thinking of seeing "Ultimatum" to watch or re-watch both "Identity" but particularly "Supremacy" as everything will make more sense particularly, and I think I can say this without spoiling anything, the sequence in New York City.
As is now expected with a "Bourne movie" one is treated to vistas of cities across the world. It has a Bond-esquire feeling if only for the fact that we are repeatedly treated to the sounds and sights of spectacular cities and magnificent vistas.
This time out the journey feels much more natural and plot driven and it takes us back to the roller-coaster feeling we had in "Identity".
Matt Damon is superb throughout his acting chops have considerably improved over the past decade or so since we saw him in the 2002 release of "The Bourne Identity".
In "Ultimatum" Bourne is fearsome, awesome, and devastating. It no longer feels like it's just a character this time Bourne has a persona and he can be petrifying with every carefully choreographed movement.
Julia Stiles has had a checkered career thus far granted she's only 26 now in 2007. Sometimes Julia Stiles reminds me of a "Star Trek" holographic character but one with only two or three programmed personas.
Stiles has perfected and should have maybe patented the character I would call "What-ev-r" or "Valley girl with bad attitude". As for her other setting - she has always seemed to work to great perfection that character of "Scared bunny rabbit" or "Deer in the headlights". There is, I suppose a third, but to be kind to Ms Stiles - Let's quickly skip over her performances as "Reluctant White Urban Dance Princess".
So I'm writing about Julia Stiles, the actor, as 'Nicky Parsons" and perhaps I should have always limited myself to that.
Here in "Ultimatum", Stiles seems to have found a way to rewrite her own programming and has come up with a more than acceptable actress. She's not a Charlize Theron or a Nicole Kidman yet but her improvements are unmistakable. Stiles seems smart and genuine even in this limited role.
To summarize, This is by far the best of the Bourne movie series. You need to have seen the others to understand the whole story but this is a definite high point in this franchise that can be enjoyed stand-alone.
Matt Damon deserves acclaim for a truly memorable performance.
The action sequences will leave you breathless, the story is intense and reminiscent of one of the Harrison Ford "Jack Ryan" movies, and the trademark shaky camera now seems successful in conveying the organic quality that was intended.
"Identity" felt like it succeeded on youthful exuberance taking it to the very edge. "Supremacy" felt like a dutiful but near-blind old workhorse, willing but unable to find it's true path. "Ultimatum" feels like a truly purposeful and yet unrestrained stallion of a thriller.
See it in the theatre it's well worth it for such a great ride.
9/10
Finally some notes on awards.
Award worthy performances for supporting cast come from Joan Allen reprising her role as "Pamela Landy" and the excellent Albert Finney as "Dr Albert Hirsch".
Notably, 71-year-old Finney has never won an Oscar, despite being nominated 5 times (most notably as supporting actor for 2001's "Erin Brokovich" and for leading actor in the 1974 production of "Murder on the Orient Express"). It's about time, methinks.
Firstly if you're a fan of Robert Ludlum's books don't look to the movies as a comparison. The movies follow an entirely different plot through the entire series and there is no continuity between them.
The Bourne Identity took us through Bourne's first ventures into self-discovery after waking up on a trawler without any idea who he was. The end of the story left him with his girlfriend (played by Franke Potente) romantically reuniting at her beach front store.
"Identity" was a defining thriller because it had been a long time since we'd seen a credible "secret agent" with a serious thriller tone that had a fulfilling plot and glut of fulfilling action sequences. Add to that a series of cameo characters (such as Children of Men's Clive Owen) and "Identity" had it all and rightfully has become a fondly remembered example of the genre. 8/10
The first sequel - "The Bourne Supremacy" - took us directly from the end of "Identity" where very soon Bourne's girlfriend is shot dead and Bourne goes on the hunt for revenge and carries out his threat that he issued in "Identity" that if the CIA unit that created him ever came after him he would bring the fight back to their door.
"Supremacy" desperately seemed to lack any actual "support" from the supporting cast. Whilst Damon is an accomplished actor one man rarely if ever holds an entire movie. A Russian speaking Karl Urban did little to present a charismatic bad guy.
"Supremacy" disappointed in terms of the action sequences and in terms of a fully developed plot. The lack of any role for a supporting cast almost rendered "Supremacy" a thorough waste of time. There were, however, some bright moments, and some character development.
6/10
In watching "Supremacy" in fact it was my initial feeling that I had watched a movie that was simply intended as a bridge to another sequel. I feel I was right for more reasons than I could imagine but you'll have to see all three films to know what I mean.
Cue the second sequel or "Threequel" a popular trend this year - "The Bourne Ultimatum".
I would recommend anyone thinking of seeing "Ultimatum" to watch or re-watch both "Identity" but particularly "Supremacy" as everything will make more sense particularly, and I think I can say this without spoiling anything, the sequence in New York City.
As is now expected with a "Bourne movie" one is treated to vistas of cities across the world. It has a Bond-esquire feeling if only for the fact that we are repeatedly treated to the sounds and sights of spectacular cities and magnificent vistas.
This time out the journey feels much more natural and plot driven and it takes us back to the roller-coaster feeling we had in "Identity".
Matt Damon is superb throughout his acting chops have considerably improved over the past decade or so since we saw him in the 2002 release of "The Bourne Identity".
In "Ultimatum" Bourne is fearsome, awesome, and devastating. It no longer feels like it's just a character this time Bourne has a persona and he can be petrifying with every carefully choreographed movement.
Julia Stiles has had a checkered career thus far granted she's only 26 now in 2007. Sometimes Julia Stiles reminds me of a "Star Trek" holographic character but one with only two or three programmed personas.
Stiles has perfected and should have maybe patented the character I would call "What-ev-r" or "Valley girl with bad attitude". As for her other setting - she has always seemed to work to great perfection that character of "Scared bunny rabbit" or "Deer in the headlights". There is, I suppose a third, but to be kind to Ms Stiles - Let's quickly skip over her performances as "Reluctant White Urban Dance Princess".
So I'm writing about Julia Stiles, the actor, as 'Nicky Parsons" and perhaps I should have always limited myself to that.
Here in "Ultimatum", Stiles seems to have found a way to rewrite her own programming and has come up with a more than acceptable actress. She's not a Charlize Theron or a Nicole Kidman yet but her improvements are unmistakable. Stiles seems smart and genuine even in this limited role.
To summarize, This is by far the best of the Bourne movie series. You need to have seen the others to understand the whole story but this is a definite high point in this franchise that can be enjoyed stand-alone.
Matt Damon deserves acclaim for a truly memorable performance.
The action sequences will leave you breathless, the story is intense and reminiscent of one of the Harrison Ford "Jack Ryan" movies, and the trademark shaky camera now seems successful in conveying the organic quality that was intended.
"Identity" felt like it succeeded on youthful exuberance taking it to the very edge. "Supremacy" felt like a dutiful but near-blind old workhorse, willing but unable to find it's true path. "Ultimatum" feels like a truly purposeful and yet unrestrained stallion of a thriller.
See it in the theatre it's well worth it for such a great ride.
9/10
Finally some notes on awards.
Award worthy performances for supporting cast come from Joan Allen reprising her role as "Pamela Landy" and the excellent Albert Finney as "Dr Albert Hirsch".
Notably, 71-year-old Finney has never won an Oscar, despite being nominated 5 times (most notably as supporting actor for 2001's "Erin Brokovich" and for leading actor in the 1974 production of "Murder on the Orient Express"). It's about time, methinks.
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Four words which are the beginning of a million profoundly meaningful conversations about life, love, and growing up against all adversity.
Never really about "Vampire Slaying", "Buffy" is a television series that uses intelligent and witty dialogue to explore themes of interpersonal relationships, coming of age, personal responsibility, purpose of life, good and evil etc. in a wonderfully engaging and genuinely charming, funny and thought-provoking way, and as such is a unique viewing experience which absolutely transcends its medium.
In this confessed fans opinion, never before has and never again will a television show so bravely and accurately represent the pains and joys of camaraderie and personal growth.
Buffy's fantastic setting is constructed upon a fictional California town, Sunnydale, and the concept of a "Hellmouth", an opening into the underworld that makes Sunnydale a nexus for Vampires, Demons, Majiks, and supernatural happenings.
A natural progression of the movie of the same name, Buffy the Vampire Slayer - the series - is centered on the title character, Buffy Summers, who, through some mystical fate bears the title "The Slayer".
"Slayers" are a line of mortal teenage girls, 21st century "Butt-Kicking Babes" granted superhuman strength, endurance, and agility who have been chosen to protect the natural world from the influence of evil demons, and to slay anyone, and anything, that threatens the safety of humanity. There is always one slayer, and another one is born every time one Slayer is killed.
Buffy is assisted by Rupert Giles, Buffy's "Watcher". The Watchers are a council of English patriarchs, one of whom is chosen to train the Slayer in combat technique and supply her with intelligence about the foes she faces.
Buffy is also supported by a gradually expanding group of friends, starting with the seemingly ordinary Willow and Xander.
All of that said the supernatural theme is really never more than a means to express tangibly the trials and tribulations of running the razor blade that is the path that lies beyond childhood, through the teenage years and into adulthood.
The most basic outline of the generic "Buffy" episode goes like this; 1. In the regular course of slaying vampires, Buffy runs into something she cannot slay easily. 2. Buffy fights valiantly but takes a beating and eventually makes a strategic retreat. 3. Buffy seeks out Giles, Willow and Xander who together provide comic relief. 4. Together Buffy, Giles, Willow and Xander work out how to kill the evil that Buffy could not easily slay. 5. Buffy seeks out that evil once again and kills it, glibly spitting out yet another witty one liner.
If this was all the show ever was it would have been a fun show to watch and would have attracted a small following, finally whimpering its last breath after about 15 episodes.
However, "Buffy" was a seven-season cult phenomenon which spawned another successful TV spin-off series about a Buffy's former boyfriend and vampire-with-a-soul, "Angel", an international following of rabid fans who meet at hundreds of international conventions which are still attended in their thousands years after the series have ended, a merchandising empire, console games, and more web pages than you can shake a dusty stake at. In short, Buffy the Vampire Slayer lead by its creator and father, Joss Whedon, is the kind of worldwide hit that can only aptly be compared to the franchise phenomenons of Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek" and George Lucas's "Star Wars".
All of this goes to distract many who are not fans of Whedon's work from the real core of the show and the reason that it is such profoundly intelligent and meaningful television and that is the joyful irony in the fact that Buffy's life outside her "Slayer duties" was just as traumatic, if not more so, than the daily fighting and killing of horrific and vile demons.
During its run Buffy went through an episode featuring no dialogue whatsoever ("Hush"), an episode in which the characters constantly broke out in song ("Once more, with feeling"), which is one of the funniest and most entertaining of all, and a painfully and profoundly moving episode that explored the impact of the death of a loved one ("The Body").
Forget the superb fight scenes, fabulous special effects, movie quality make-up, sets and costumes, forget even the top-notch dialogue, beautifully honed characters and still you have "Buffy", a show about young people living through the very real and non-supernatural perils of love, friendship and growing up in a very real crazy world that all of us deal with every day.
Quite simply "Buffy" is a unique television classic which deserves to be hailed and celebrated for the maturity and bravery with which it dealt with such important and fundamentally moving, emotional and profoundly controversial subject matter.
Never before have we seen and never again will we see anything that comes close to this. Out of ten? Don't make me laugh.
Never really about "Vampire Slaying", "Buffy" is a television series that uses intelligent and witty dialogue to explore themes of interpersonal relationships, coming of age, personal responsibility, purpose of life, good and evil etc. in a wonderfully engaging and genuinely charming, funny and thought-provoking way, and as such is a unique viewing experience which absolutely transcends its medium.
In this confessed fans opinion, never before has and never again will a television show so bravely and accurately represent the pains and joys of camaraderie and personal growth.
Buffy's fantastic setting is constructed upon a fictional California town, Sunnydale, and the concept of a "Hellmouth", an opening into the underworld that makes Sunnydale a nexus for Vampires, Demons, Majiks, and supernatural happenings.
A natural progression of the movie of the same name, Buffy the Vampire Slayer - the series - is centered on the title character, Buffy Summers, who, through some mystical fate bears the title "The Slayer".
"Slayers" are a line of mortal teenage girls, 21st century "Butt-Kicking Babes" granted superhuman strength, endurance, and agility who have been chosen to protect the natural world from the influence of evil demons, and to slay anyone, and anything, that threatens the safety of humanity. There is always one slayer, and another one is born every time one Slayer is killed.
Buffy is assisted by Rupert Giles, Buffy's "Watcher". The Watchers are a council of English patriarchs, one of whom is chosen to train the Slayer in combat technique and supply her with intelligence about the foes she faces.
Buffy is also supported by a gradually expanding group of friends, starting with the seemingly ordinary Willow and Xander.
All of that said the supernatural theme is really never more than a means to express tangibly the trials and tribulations of running the razor blade that is the path that lies beyond childhood, through the teenage years and into adulthood.
The most basic outline of the generic "Buffy" episode goes like this; 1. In the regular course of slaying vampires, Buffy runs into something she cannot slay easily. 2. Buffy fights valiantly but takes a beating and eventually makes a strategic retreat. 3. Buffy seeks out Giles, Willow and Xander who together provide comic relief. 4. Together Buffy, Giles, Willow and Xander work out how to kill the evil that Buffy could not easily slay. 5. Buffy seeks out that evil once again and kills it, glibly spitting out yet another witty one liner.
If this was all the show ever was it would have been a fun show to watch and would have attracted a small following, finally whimpering its last breath after about 15 episodes.
However, "Buffy" was a seven-season cult phenomenon which spawned another successful TV spin-off series about a Buffy's former boyfriend and vampire-with-a-soul, "Angel", an international following of rabid fans who meet at hundreds of international conventions which are still attended in their thousands years after the series have ended, a merchandising empire, console games, and more web pages than you can shake a dusty stake at. In short, Buffy the Vampire Slayer lead by its creator and father, Joss Whedon, is the kind of worldwide hit that can only aptly be compared to the franchise phenomenons of Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek" and George Lucas's "Star Wars".
All of this goes to distract many who are not fans of Whedon's work from the real core of the show and the reason that it is such profoundly intelligent and meaningful television and that is the joyful irony in the fact that Buffy's life outside her "Slayer duties" was just as traumatic, if not more so, than the daily fighting and killing of horrific and vile demons.
During its run Buffy went through an episode featuring no dialogue whatsoever ("Hush"), an episode in which the characters constantly broke out in song ("Once more, with feeling"), which is one of the funniest and most entertaining of all, and a painfully and profoundly moving episode that explored the impact of the death of a loved one ("The Body").
Forget the superb fight scenes, fabulous special effects, movie quality make-up, sets and costumes, forget even the top-notch dialogue, beautifully honed characters and still you have "Buffy", a show about young people living through the very real and non-supernatural perils of love, friendship and growing up in a very real crazy world that all of us deal with every day.
Quite simply "Buffy" is a unique television classic which deserves to be hailed and celebrated for the maturity and bravery with which it dealt with such important and fundamentally moving, emotional and profoundly controversial subject matter.
Never before have we seen and never again will we see anything that comes close to this. Out of ten? Don't make me laugh.