The Bourne Ultimatum
Aug. 5th, 2007 06:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragojustineThe Bourne franchise has definitely carved out a niche. They have a very particular style of high-tension surveillance cat-and-mouse information-centered chase scenes that I don’t think I’ve ever seen anywhere else. The first one of those in this movie is incredible, with Bourne guiding a hapless reporter through a maze of enemies and security cameras with absolute precision. It’s quite something. I enjoy the fact that these movies allow the Feds to be ruthlessly competent- how often are the Feds actually competent enemies in movies like these? I enjoy Bourne’s competence, his planning.
However, I still didn’t enjoy this movie much. The first Bourne is one of my all time favorites, and this just makes me go meh. Why? First the obvious shallow- Matt Damon used to be SO pretty. In the first movie he was gorgeous, and I was totally high on the pretty-boy action star. How could he possibly have aged so ungracefully? And the second reason is that our relationship with Bourne is fundamentally different in the second two movies. The first movie is an amnesia story, and I am a sucker for amnesia stories. We see in Bourne a combination of that ruthless lethal competence that I love so much, and serious doubt and confusion. And, because he has a confidant in the girl, we hear all his thought processes as he tries to plan, to cope, to understand what is happening. He is a very human character and we have that window into his point of view- the first movie puts the viewer very much with Bourne. The second two movies remove his confusion and doubt, making him much less sympathetic. They take away his confidante, so that we never hear him vocalize his thoughts or his plans to anyone. They show us Bourne through the eyes of the FBI. In the second and third movies, the viewer no longer has a window to Bourne, is no longer in this with him. He has become an enigma in a way that he wasn’t in the first movie. I miss the amnesia storyline, I miss really being with this character as he figures things out and makes his decisions. And I miss the pretty.
So, massive love for the first movie (because I am an amnesia fic addict) and two passably entertaining and suspenseful sequels that nevertheless leave me a little disappointed, in that way that you are when you’re trying to recapture a very particular type of first-movie magic.
However, I still didn’t enjoy this movie much. The first Bourne is one of my all time favorites, and this just makes me go meh. Why? First the obvious shallow- Matt Damon used to be SO pretty. In the first movie he was gorgeous, and I was totally high on the pretty-boy action star. How could he possibly have aged so ungracefully? And the second reason is that our relationship with Bourne is fundamentally different in the second two movies. The first movie is an amnesia story, and I am a sucker for amnesia stories. We see in Bourne a combination of that ruthless lethal competence that I love so much, and serious doubt and confusion. And, because he has a confidant in the girl, we hear all his thought processes as he tries to plan, to cope, to understand what is happening. He is a very human character and we have that window into his point of view- the first movie puts the viewer very much with Bourne. The second two movies remove his confusion and doubt, making him much less sympathetic. They take away his confidante, so that we never hear him vocalize his thoughts or his plans to anyone. They show us Bourne through the eyes of the FBI. In the second and third movies, the viewer no longer has a window to Bourne, is no longer in this with him. He has become an enigma in a way that he wasn’t in the first movie. I miss the amnesia storyline, I miss really being with this character as he figures things out and makes his decisions. And I miss the pretty.
So, massive love for the first movie (because I am an amnesia fic addict) and two passably entertaining and suspenseful sequels that nevertheless leave me a little disappointed, in that way that you are when you’re trying to recapture a very particular type of first-movie magic.
