The Bourne Supremacy

I saw The Bourne Identity, the first in the ongoing series based on Robert Ludlum's books, in the cinema the first week of its release. At the time I was disappointed and underhelmed, but now I've found all the buzz sorrounding its sequel, The Bourne Supremacy, is almost convinving me it was much better than I remembered it to be. However, I have to stand by my original opinion - that is was nowhere near as interesting or exciting as it should have been.

What I remember for sure about the orginal was that the best parts were the scenes with Damon's love interest, played by Frank Potente. Put next to Damon's decent but slightly flat and boring Bourne, she improved the film a considerable amount with her great performance. Therefore I was deeply annoyed when, at the beginning of the sequel, she was brutally killed off - less than ten minutes in! - simply to further the plot. Her death was quick and badly handled - strange after the success of the first film. So not a great start to a film I had been very excited about seeing.

The plot has some new elements but is essentially the same as that of the first - evil CIA man intent on killing Bourne and nice CIA woman intent on finding Bourne clash, as Bourne himself gradually discovers more about his mysterious past and makes daring escapes from city police, a LOT - and offers very few surprises. After Clive Owen's creepy CIA hitman in Identity, Karl Urban's Russian hired gun is disappointingly flat. Joan Allen and Brian Cox work well together but are underused and don't do anything new. Director Paul Greengrass's quick cut style is impressively utilised but isn't the way I like to watch a movie.



There is good mixed in with the bad, though - the action scenes are well coreographed and quite exciting despite their repititiveness. The car chase is disappointing, especially compared to Identity's, but is still decent fun. And Julia Stiles gets to do some actual acting, after her miniscule part in the first film.

Decent action fun - fine if you like your film's mindless with a litle intelligence. Still, not much of an improvment on the first - Damon and his character need to get more interesting if this series is hoping to continue.

**1/2 out of 5.