Seen: August 10th, 2007
Format: Theater
Rating: 6
I'm a fan of spy thrillers, both novels and film. I'll admit that I haven't read Ludlum's series, but I enjoyed the first two films well enough and had heard that this one was the best of the bunch. So off to the theater I went.
And it was OK.
My problem with this film is that plot and character take a back seat, more like the way back seat in a 70's station wagon, to the action. That's not to say that there isn't plot, there is. But it's really not that interesting or surprising. The bad guy is bad. The good guy is goodish and good at being bad. The good girls are goodish and the bad doctor is bad.
Lines drawn, start the chase music.
Bourne is still his bad self. The action is very good. It's fast paced and tense. It goes over the top occasionally and sometimes goes in directions we don't expect. There's excellent stunt work here, and the visuals are excellent without the obvious sheen of CGI (though I'm sure it's there).
But it's most of the movie. If Bourne isn't driving, running, jumping, shooting or beating the snot out of someone, then he's having a terse conversation to extract some information so he can move on to the next thing he has to drive, jump over, shoot or beat the snot out of. It gets a little repetitive and feels a bit like a video game (and may be by now), instead of an actual film. Granted there are some slower bits where those who're busy try to catch up to him say some mysterious things before sending some new people out to have the snot whacked out of them by Bourne.
Maybe the problem here is that this is the payoff. This film wraps it all up. This is the one where we find out what's really going on. Maybe the lack of patience in the film is because there's been two already and let's get this done.
I dunno.
The acting is good. I like Matt Damon in general, and he's good here. David Strathairn is good, but a bit of a caricature here. Joan Allen is solid, but never really gets to much of a chance to get rolling. Scott Glenn, Julia Stiles, Paddy Considine and Albert Finney are all good, but drastically under-utilized.
At this point I feel like I've got to tell you that this film is actually not bad. You may like it or even love it. I don't feel like I wasted my time. But I guess after everything that's gone before, I wanted something a bit more spy and a bit less action.
The Good: Bad to the Bourne
The Bad: Can I take a breather?
The Ugly: You can never go home
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