The Bourne Identity shocked Hollywood in 2002 by turning baby-faced Matt Damon into a credible action hero in a thrilling espionage action movie. It was a big hit.
The Bourne Supremacy, the new sequel, lacks that shock appeal, of course, but it still delivers an excellent follow-up that confirms Bourne as a first-class movie franchise.
It deserves to be a big hit this summer.
Both movies do justice to the Robert Ludlum novels that spawned the franchise, with screenwriter Tony Gilroy skillfully updating Ludlum out of the Cold War era without losing the intrigue of the central premise and its colourful characters.
The key factor is the dark, brooding, anti-heroic nature of Jason Bourne himself. In an era when real-life America searches desperately for untarnished and even fake war heroes, Bourne's success is a welcome deviation.
The story in the sequel is less complicated, less humanistic than in the original movie. The filmmakers assume viewers know all about Jason Bourne's amnesia and his search for clues about his past as a rogue agent-assassin for the CIA.
But the sequel is more wildly intense and more action-oriented, especially with new director Paul Greengrass (creator of the brilliant Irish civil rights drama Bloody Sunday) at the helm. So it balances out beautifully. And yet the violence is not gratuitously bloody.
Damon is again excellent, this time with less to say -- his brutal man-of-action character is often mute in scenes -- but with a lot more to do. When it does come time to talk, however, especially in a crucial scene of atonement, Damon is so skilled that he makes the emotional scenes work as well as the thriller action scenes do.
It helps, of course, that every role is so well cast. That was true when one-time indie director Doug Liman was in charge of the original. That is even more true now that maverick Greengrass is at the helm of the sequel.
Franka Potente is back as Damon's love interest, although she is not on screen nearly enough -- this is one of the sequel's few false moves.
Others returning include the marvellous Scottish character actor Brian Cox as the CIA's Cold War dinosaur, a man who has difficulty dealing with the new reality. Julia Stiles is back. Although her small role remains insignificant, it could expand in the next sequel, assuming there is one.
New to the franchise, on a one-time-only basis, is an effective Karl Urban as the corrupt Russian secret agent Kirill (I defy you to recognize him even if you have just seen him riding through Rohan as Eomer in The Lord Of The Rings).
More significant is Joan Allen, acing her role as a CIA chief tracking down Bourne. Allen's grace and class is delivered with a toughness that confirms her skills as an actress and her role as Bourne's rival and possible nemesis.
The Bourne Supremacy literally explodes in a series of action set pieces. They culminate in an extended, exhausting and absolutely thrilling Moscow car chase that now ranks among the best movie car chases ever.
Jason Bourne again rules supreme in his genre this summer.
(This film is rated PG)
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