The Bourne Saga Ends in The Bourne Ultimatum

Just about every fan of action/adventure movies have at least heard of the films created off of Robert Ludlum’s novels: The Bourne Identity being the oldest and best known, followed by 2004’s The Bourne Supremacy and now, as Hollywood scrapes the bottom of the barrel for new movie ideas and makes ever more sequels, The Bourne Ultimatum. Maybe you’ve never seen any of them or maybe you’ve seen every one in the theaters…either way, a very large percentage of movie-goers have at least heard of them.

For those that haven’t heard of them…Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is a special agent who has been trained as a deadly weapon…by what agency and for what purpose he doesn’t know at first, something went awry with his training and completely erased his memory of who he is and where he’s been. In Identity Bourne chases down his handler, sniffs a few leads on who might be responsible for what he is, then meets an attractive lady and settles down as far from the United States government as he can possibly manage.

*IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE FIRST MOVIE, STOP RIGHT THERE*

Bourne and his beloved have lived a peaceful life for about two years and are beginning to think they may be able to have a normal life after all. That is, until an unknown gunner chases the pair down and, in an attempt to kill Bourne, accidentally kills her instead. Now he’s on the war path and will stop at nothing to find the people responsible for her death.

Now as Ultimatum begins Jason Bourne aids a reporter who has been targeted by the government for saying the phrase “Black Briar” on his cell phone. Bourne knows only that the phrase has something to do with his hazy past as other “assets” like he once was are mobilized against anyone who knows anything about what it means.

Ok I’ll admit, there’s not a whole lot I can say about Ultimatum without giving away any key points of the plot…suffice to say there is a new lead in Bourne’s search for himself that he follows through all manner of adversity, squaring off against Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) who took over Bourne’s case after the untimely end of her predecessor.

The filming and special effects in this movie are just as impressive…perhaps even a little more…than its predecessors as all the dramatic resources available today are put into use to create this film. Unfortunately the attention put to those special effects did not extend to script, character development, pacing, or plot…basically we have a 15-minute segment of story that’s stretched out to feature length with impressive fight and chase scenes. That’s pretty much it.

If you’re a fan of the Bourne movies this one is an absolute must to find out what happens at the end of his story…otherwise, it’s pretty empty of substance and definitely doesn’t hold up to the standards of the first two.

Overall if you’re an action/adventure junky the Bourne movies are for you, I’d definitely recommend not watching this third movie until you’ve seen the other two as the little bit of story that is there won’t make any sense without watching those first. This is a good movie to watch when you’re in the mood for a macho film but I personally wouldn’t be very interested in re-watching it because there’s just not enough there to keep my attention.