Bourne Again: The Bourne Supremacy

Bourne Again Part 2: The Bourne Supremacy

Welcome back to part 2 of my Bourne Again series.  This time, I'm taking you through the second movie in this thrilling trilogy, The Bourne Supremacy.  This film picks up years after the events in The Bourne Identity.  Jason Bourne and his girlfriend, Marie, are living in seclusion in India.  Jason is still struggling to put together his life after his struggles with amnesia.  Bits and pieces are slowly coming back to him, most prominently an assassination in Germany.

This movie, tightly directed by Paul Greengrass, ups the action ante compared to its predecessor.  However, at a slim 1 hour, 48 minutes, it is the shortest film in the Bourne trilogy.  It is the most limited in terms of storytelling, centered around a single memory in Bourne's still-rebooting brain.  After re-watching this movie, it's clear that The Bourne Supremacy is, at its core, a filler movie bridging the first and third installments.  That's not to say its a bad movie, just an incomplete one.  The action sequence are top notch, the editing is fast-paced, and the directing is second-to-none in the spy world.  What I mean by filler is that, while it advance the overall story, there's not enough in this one for it to fall anywhere but third (in my opinion) in the Bourne hierarchy.

There is plenty to like in this film.  Brian Cox gives another devilish performance as a shadowy figure in charge of covering up the Treadstone supersoldier program.  Matt Damon is excellent (as always) as the titular hero, Jason Bourne.  He's a man of few words, but always seems one step ahead of the game.  He also shows an impressive amount of vulnerability after the (spoiler alert!!!) death of his girlfriend early in the film.  While that death is an important moment in terms of plot, I feel that it also slightly limits the film because Bourne no longer has a character to play off of.  I'm also a big fan of the addition of Joan Allen as CIA chief, Pamela Landy.  She gives a great performance, and toes the line between making us believe she's out to get Bourne, while potentially helping him along the way.

The story of this film ultimately comes down to a story of redemption.  Jason Bourne struggles to overcome his first kill and come to the terms of the damage it did to the offspring of his targets.

Ultimately, The Bourne Supremacy feels like a "Part 1" in a two part film.  It sets up the events in The Bourne Ultimatum, while not delivering enough to stand on its own two legs.  In my opinion, it's the weakest of the Bourne trilogy.  I don't want to you to believe that I mean bad when I say weakest.  It's like me saying that Return Of The Jedi is the weakest of the original Star Wars trilogy.  Still a great film, but one of them has to come in third place.

Up next:  The Bourne Ultimatum.