Throwback Thursday Review: 'The Bourne Ultimatum' Review

This week I resume my series of Bourne reviews with only The Bourne Legacy remaining in the lead up to Jason Bourne. Next week I anticipate doing Throwback Thursday Reviews for the live action 2010 Tim Burton adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and X-Men: First Class to correlate with the dual release of Alice Through the Looking Glass and X-Men: Apocalypse. I would also like to introduce a new form of review that week that will be a little different, I'm saving the reveal of what that will be for when it's posted.

'The Bourne Ultimatum' Review

Nominated For: Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing.
Won: Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing.

The Bourne Ultimatum is the third film in the Bourne series. I believe it was intended to be a conclusion for the planned Bourne trilogy, but plans clearly changed. Typically, most franchises tend to become more and more mediocre or diminish with each installment (There are clearly many exceptions that I'm completely aware of). However there are some franchises that revitalize themselves in far-off installments (ie. Mission: Impossible and Fast and Furious).

That is the case with the Bourne series, as each film manages to reinvigorate the franchise (Note: My first time watching these Bourne films have been as I'm reviewing them so I haven't seen The Bourne Legacy yet). One unique aspect of many recent spy films that I've noticed is that they don't rely too much on previous installments, so a viewer could hypothetically jump in and watch any film without seeing the previous ones. Meanwhile, they ensure to reward longtime viewers with some references to previous events and that's definitely the case with The Bourne Ultimatum.

When it comes down to it, up to this point the Bourne films blended together in my mind and it was difficult to distinguish them from one another as it stitched together as an overarching narrative. Each of them are quite similar with Jason Bourne on the run searching to learn who he is while being pursued by the CIA, government agencies, and international authorities.

On that note, The Bourne Ultimatum distinguishes itself thanks to some very memorable sequences with more global awareness (seeing Bourne hop around from location to location) and phenomenal filmmaking. The Bourne Ultimatum takes the intense high octane stunt work and injects it with a fresh helping of energy. The Bourne Ultimatum does this all while maintaining the air of being a more sophisticated blockbuster allowing for a tightly woven thrilling experience with action, compelling characters, and an engaging story.

Paul Greengrass returns and delivers once again. Greengrass maintains a quick pace which leaves some breathing room for the audience to take in the crazy action sequences. The pace is supported by some cool sound design, the incredible score composed by John Powell, the fast paced editing, and clever camerawork. These elements entwine together to bring some brilliant filmmaking to the forefront and they certainly won't be forgotten.

The film also has a well devised screenplay from Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, and George Nolfi. The three manage to take the spy genre and ground it as much as possible while pitting Bourne against the wall and utilize some clever techniques to bring him out of these sticky situations. The intuition from these writers give what many would gaze upon as a pure popcorn flick the feeling of a more intellectual blockbuster.

The performances further elevate the material as the core cast brings their "A-game." Matt Damon has more than proved he's capable of carrying this franchise as Jason Bourne. Damon gets to delve into the more complex elements of the character as he strives to understand exactly who he is and restore his memory.

Julia Stiles reprises her role from The Bourne Supremacy as Nicky Parsons, a CIA agent now helping Bourne rather than hindering him. I didn't discuss her role in Supremacy as I didn't take too much away from her performance and had no idea she would be more important down the line. Stiles is serviceable, but neither impressed me or disappointed. I also liked that she didn't become a run of the mill love interest but rather a helper of Bourne. 

Joan Allen once again showcases gravitas as high ranking CIA operative, Pamela Landry. Allen gets some great verbal exchanges with Strathiirn and Damon.

David Strathairn holds his own as the shifty CIA statesman and the gravitas he brings about him makes him an interesting morally gray antagonist (Not necessarily evil, but opposing Bourne).

Edgar Ramírez is essentially just another trained assassin who crosses paths with Bourne and is forced to put Bourne in his crosshairs like the other mindless assassins from The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy.

Albert Finney's appearance as Dr. Albert Hirsch was a tad underwhelming, but interesting nonetheless. It was also nice to catch glimpses of Daniel Brühl and Scott Glenn after recently seeing Brühl as Zemo in Captain America: Civil War and Glenn as Stick in both seasons of Daredevil, although neither is very involved in the film as both have fairly minor roles but fill the capacity as needed. 

The Bourne Ultimatum had relatively few dull moments with an engaging plot, phenomenal direction, fantastic technical elements, and some incredible performances to fill in the roles of these compelling characters. It amounted to be the best of the franchise thus far that corrects many of my issues with its predecessors and I probably would have scored it higher had I reviewed it upon first being released but when compared to some of the more recent spy flicks (i.e. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, and Skyfall), I found it to be a tad lacking. 

Film Assessment: A-