Director: Paul Greengrass
Cast: Matt Damon, Brian Cox, Joan Allen, Karl Urban, Julia Stiles
Country: Germany / United States
Rating: PG-13
Run Time: 108 min
Even though The Bourne Identity revamped the espionage genre in the 2000s, the series is mostly remembered by its sequels The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. This is the point in the franchise when Paul Greengrass stepped in and revamped the series' stylistic identity as we know it today. Greengrass took the first film's action and themes and amplified them with his signature documentary style. The Bourne sequels are infamous amongst action fans for introducing and popularizing the "shaky cam" style of photography in which the cinematographer photographs an actor with a hand held camera for maximum immersion and documentary realism. This style is also referred to as "post-action," coined by Vern from OutlawVern.com.
However, The Bourne Supremacy also upped the series' maturity level and delved deeper into its post 9/11 themes of surveillance and government secrecy. Greengrass truly is the perfect filmmaker for a series like this with his pedigree for capturing true to life events on film. Greengrass' sequels are also faster paced and cut with a rapid style of editing that constantly keeps the film in motion, even during its slower moments. The sequel is even a different kind of film than the first, being both a who-dun-it mystery and a revenge thriller at the same time. Despite an all around lack of action, The Bourne Supremacy is a solid step up from the dregs of its early 2000s predecessor.
 |
| All good things come to an end. |
The Bourne Supremacy picks up two years after the first film with Jason Bourne and his girlfriend Marie residing in India. Unfortunately, their happy getaway is ruined when Bourne spots an unfamiliar man, an assassin named Kiril (Karl Urban). Even though Bourne attempts to escape, Kiril shoots at him and takes out his girlfriend Marie instead. Believing the assassin to be linked with Treadstone, Bourne resurfaces in Europe in order to attract the CIA's attention. However, Bourne soon realizes that the CIA was never after him at all, and instead one of its rogue operatives was using Bourne to take the blame for a previous crime. Bourne comes to grips with a past assassination linked to the current day plot against him and also seeks vengeance on Kiril for murdering his girlfriend.
While The Bourne Identity feels dated in terms of its visual style, fashion sense, and sound design, The Bourne Supremacy still feels modern even though it came out two years after its predecessor. Greengrass' sequel is a technical delight in which photography, editing, and music comes together to craft a unique vision of modern society. His signature documentary shooting style makes his films feel all the more realistic and eternal in their mission to establish a time and a place. This direct cinema style is best suited for surveillance sequences and location establishment, as the camera movement places the viewer into the setting as if they were a fly on the wall to the government's shady dealings. Greengrass is also to be applauded for focusing on average streets and subways in order to make his locations more realistic instead of focusing on tourist attractions and world renowned landmarks. And while the photography is a tad too intense for my taste during the action scenes (more on that later), I can't imagine the Bourne series without Greengrass' cinematic eye.
Editing credits go to Christopher Rouse and Rick Pearson, who both do an outstanding job piecing together the puzzle that is Greengrass' shaky cam. The strength of the film's editing is most apparent during sequences when Bourne eludes police officers and government agents, not during fight sequences. While The Bourne Ultimatum contains greater elusive sequences, The Bourne Supremacy got the ball rolling with the sequence where Bourne eludes the CIA during a protest and kidnaps one of their agents at the same time. The editors do their best to piece together the jumbled photography that is the film's action scenes, but that's not their fault, as they didn't shoot the film themselves.
 |
| Improvisational Bourne. |
Greengrass' direction, along with the film's pitch perfect editing, all comes together perfectly with John Powell's excellent score. Returning from the first film, Powell is to be applauded for composing several exciting and recognizable music cues throughout the film that racquet up the tension. His score drives the film's action packed proceedings home and buries itself into your brain long after the credits role.
Damon returns and gives an even more intense performance this time around. While it is unfortunate that Marie dies in the first 15 minutes of the film, it proves that Bourne is a more interesting character while on his own. He simply works best when he has all of the odds stacked against him and him alone. And while we should all have a moment of silence for Marie...the true Bourne comes to life here. The sequel also features several great supporting performances by Brian Cox as the shady Abbot, Joan Allen as the franchise's second hero Pamela Landy, and Karl Urban as one of Bourne's greatest foes. While neither Cox nor Urban last beyond the sequel, Joan Allen truly shines as the amazing Pam Landy, a determined government employee who purely wants to get to the bottom of everything. Both she and Julia Stiles' characters last into the third film as well and both help round out the franchise's best supporting cast members.
The Bourne Supremacy is ultimately a story of revenge between Bourne and Kiril. However, the film is also a tragic story of forgiveness and the strength of Bourne's inner humanity. While the revenge plot is what most audiences will latch onto, the tale of self-forgiveness is what is most powerful about the sequel. Bourne initially played a part in Abbot's scheme to steal money from the CIA when he assassinated a politician who was willing to squeal on Abbot. When Bourne went to kill him, he discovered that his wife was in the room too. Therefore, Bourne reluctantly killed the politician first and than his wife, making it look like a murder suicide. By the end of the film, Bourne's only goal is to locate their daughter and to explain to her that her mom never killed her husband or herself. This is what ultimately leads Bourne into the film's climactic car chase, his conscience.
 |
| Leave it to Greengrass to finish a car chase. |
The only true disappointment of The Bourne Supremacy is its sometimes extreme photography and minimal amount of action. The film's action quota comprises of a small opening chase, a short fist fight, and an unforgettable final car chase; that's it. The final car chase is the only true action set piece of the film to last longer than two to three minutes. Fortunately, the car chase is especially great because it plays out over an extended period of time and involves both Bourne, police officers, and Kiril. Bourne and Kiril's final car faceoff in a crowded tunnel makes for one of the series' best action highlights, especially its final moment when Greengrass blows his vehicular wad.
While this style of photography can be great for surveillance sequences and establishing realistic locations, it can be a bit extreme for action. The fist fight between Bourne and Jarda is especially difficult to make out at points. While some may argue that shaky cam adds extra power to an actor's hits or places the viewer into the action, all it does is give me a headache or blur what should be a visibly cohesive fist fight. This action scene also further builds on Bourne's knack for improvising everyday objects as weapons when he rolls up a magazine and defends himself from a knife attack.
The shaky cam style of action, also referred to as post-action, is an extremely controversial and touchy subject amongst action fans. Many decry it as the end of action cinema and the death of true action photography. Some filmmakers, such as Olivier Megaton (Taken 2, Transporter 3), have gone on to become experts in post-action, thereby rendering entire action sequences incomprehensible. It's a shame that such a style caught on, because no camera should ever be purposefully shook up.
 |
| The end of the Supremacy, the start of the Ultimatum. |
The Bourne series will always be remembered because of what Paul Greengrass did to the series. He took Doug Liman's solid first installment and improved upon it in every way possible. Greengrass turned a fictionalized tale of espionage and intrigue and shot it in a documentary style in order to make it appear as if it were non-fiction. Greengrass also brought a sense of tension and excitement to the Bourne proceedings that seemed lacking in The Bourne Identity. Even though Greengrass' sequel is light on action, the film is even more compelling and tense than the first. In retrospect, The Bourne Supremacy is an important stepping stone in the franchise because it led to Greengrass' masterpiece (and the true finale of the series), The Bourne Ultimatum.
Rating: 8/10 - A fantastic spy thriller that ups its predecessor in every way and sets the stage for a superior third installment. Important for introducing Greengrass' style to the series before going all out for the finale.
Franchise:
The Bourne Identity (dir. Doug Liman, 2002)
The Bourne Supremacy (dir. Paul Greengrass, 2004)
The Bourne Ultimatum (dir. Paul Greengrass, 2007)
The Bourne Legacy (dir. Tony Gilroy, 2012)
Untitled Fifth Bourne Film (dir. Paul Greengrass, 2016)
No comments:
Post a Comment