I think I'm probably the last of you all to see The Bourne Ultimatum, but I finally caught it on the same night I watched The Kingdom. With my home theater back up, let me tell you, it was the perfect movie combo to let it shine. Or rumble, actually.
A few months ago, I rented the first two Bourne movies to rid my temporary amnesia of the storyline. I knew they were great films, but I'd forgotten just how good they were. The action was great, the storyline never grew stale, and Matt Damon showed that he can genuinely pull off badass. All this from one of the most clichéd story devices ever. Go figure.
For The Bourne Ultimatum, we get the origin story. It's odd getting there in the last act of the trilogy, but it works out because it finally answers a few questions left lingering from the previous two. Not all of them, though. I liked Julia Stiles's character in these movies and even though she has a larger part in this one, they never flesh out her role. She seems important, but at the end I was asking, "but what about Julia?" That could be just 'cause I'm a guy, though.
That's all just minor quibbling as the movie is excellent. But the best part of this one? They issued Ritalin to all the cameramen. The plague of Hollywood that is Shaky-Cam is reduced to minor Wobble-Cam. It comes back in a few scenes, but I could follow the action without audibly yelling for the camera guy to push the "Steady" button.
If you've never seen any of the Bourne movies, do so. The next long weekend you have, rent all three and watch 'em back to back. It truly is an excellent trilogy. I only worry about Hollywood stretching this into a never-ending series. This year, we'll get Star Trek 11 and James Bond 22. Bourne is good with three. Hopefully they let it rest in its goodness, untainted by a fourth...or fourteenth.
Grade: A
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