CrankyÕs
Flickershow Reviews
By Neil Richter
The Zephyr, Galesburg
The Bourne Redundancy
ŌThe
Bourne RedundancyĶ was an actual title jokingly given to The Bourne
Ultimatum by its director, Paul
Greengrass. In all honesty, heÕs
not that far off. The joke
encapsulates all that is both good and bad about the film. Lets start with the good. The Bourne
Ultimatum is by no means a failure. It sets a goal for itself and more than meets it. There are chases, shootouts, fights,
and even an explosion or two if youÕre into that sort of thing. In fact, as far as summer action movies
go, its pretty darned good.
Everyone has been falling over themselves to call Paul Greengrass the
next big thing in action cinema.
You know what? TheyÕre
right. HeÕs an expert technician,
one of the only directors who can use a handheld camera for nearly every shot
of a film and not make the audience nauseous. This is no mean feat, and it pays off in dividends when it
comes to maintaining a breakneck pace.
IÕm not going to lie; the film lives up to the hype when it comes to
action and excitement. Apart from
a few brain-dead theatre patrons who felt it necessary to text message back and
forth throughout the film (It must have been really important, because the
glare off their phones could have signaled a helicopter) everyone stared
wide-eyed at the screen for the entire running time.
My
problem is indeed not with the action.
No sir. My problem comes
when I consider that this is a franchise-ender. At least for now, there will be no more Bourne films. This closes the trilogy, and with it
the saga of Jason Bourne. As
someone who has viewed all three films, when the lights went up after Ultimatum
I found myself sitting there, eyes glazed over. Is that it? You see, The Bourne Ultimatum is a film without a plot, just like all of the other
Bourne films lacked plots.
Somebody is put into a position to pursue Bourne, and Bourne likewise is
put into a position to be pursued.
Then the roles reverse back and forth for awhile as the body count
rises. ThatÕs all well and
good. I like mindless destruction
as much as the next guy. The thing
is, this particular Jason Bourne movie has even less of a plot than the previous
plotless films. This is a
bewildering concept until you actually view the film and see what IÕm talking
about. The end result is that the
series has a complete lack of closure.
I know that the cool thing to do these days is to leave a few loose ends
because, you know, life is like that.
However, here practically nothing is tied up. We are
treated to a thirty second coda after the last action sequence, followed by an
ambiguous final shot. Its almost
as if the producers were afraid to actually end the film, lest they get the
opportunity to make more money off a fourth Bourne movie in the future.
You
still may be incredulous. I
sympathize. We all paid to see
Bourne break some arms and maybe see some wanton property damage in exotic
locales. We got that. So why am I complaining? Well, when it comes down to it I find
that a little character development goes a long way in an action movie. An explosion becomes more than an
explosion when it involves somebody we care about. The first film in the franchise, The Bourne Identity, knew this.
We genuinely cared about BourneÕs plight. He was confused, frightened, and totally mystified by his
own ability to kill more people than the Plague. GreengrassÕ sequel continued this trend. Bourne suffered a devastating loss that
propelled his actions throughout the rest of the film. We were curious as to who he was, and
why the CIA wanted to kill him so much.
Even without plots, both films were able to inject some sense of
humanity into the proceedings. No
such luck here. The filmmakers are
too busy making it bigger and faster and shinier and newer and just plain more,
so much so that when the big reveal
comes as to BourneÕs identity—the driving question behind the entire
series—it doesnÕt seem to matter.
He just jumps out a window and the action continues unabated.
This
is all a real shame to me because I do enjoy the work of both Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass. Greengrass in particular is one of the
best filmmakers out there, so long as his subject doesnÕt require an excess of
emotion. YouÕre not likely to see
him direct a romantic comedy anytime soon. This is not an insult.
There is a definite place for directors like Greengrass. For instance, his United 93 was a nearly flawless film simply because the project
demanded a detached
perspective. Anything else and it
would have been rejected.
Doug
Liman, the director of The Bourne Identity, wasnÕt quite the action filmmaker that Greengrass is, but he knew how
to make the audience care on a cerebral as well as a visceral level while still
making a fast-paced thriller. As a
result, it still maintains its place as the best Jason Bourne film. In the meantime, if you decide to see The
Bourne Ultimatum, breathe a sigh of
relief in knowing that it doesnÕt really matter whether you saw the previous
films or not. Just sit down and
watch mayhem for mayhemÕs sake.
8/16/07