Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[innerSpaceman]

Why-oh-why do I listen to critical reaction?

The Bourne Ultimatum was completely MEH.


There was plenty of fun action, and a goodly amount of spyster intrigue.

But Jason Bourne was a weaksauce character this time out. Damon barely spoke a word. He had no one to play off throughout the entire film (cept for a brief interlude with Nicki, who - it turns out - used to be his gal at one time pre-being-Bourne) .. and so he never seems decisive or pro-active. He's just there, and he's always shown to be competent in sneaking around and fighting and chasing. But he's never moving the story along, never making anything happen, and never offered an opportunity to express his character through dialogue.


The stuff in the movie is re-tread city. David Strathairn is nasty, but his character is - in the end - far too easily fooled by Bourne to have risen to the high post he's got at the CIA. Joan Allen plays the same good-guy-at-the-Agency role she delivered in the last outting.

The series has been weak ever since Bourne recovered from amnesia. There's no hook to the tale. He's simply a rogue spy/assassin looking for revenge. Snore.

Last time he was looking to apologize for his first hit job, and he has to remember the details of that assignment. This time he's close to recovering the memory of how he was indoctrinated into the Treadstone program ... and the payoff for that is ho-and-hum.

Spoiler:

Ooooh, big deal ... he volunteered for the job. So frelling what??

.


The pacing was fine, the action was good. But the part of Bourne was simply phoned in, virtually non-existent in a film with his name in the title. And - um - there was no "ultimatum" anywhere to be found.