The Bourne Trilogy (Identity, Supremacy, Ultimatum)

[Brasil]

I've not read the original novels yet (note the "yet") by Robert Ludlum, but with The Bourne Supremacy opening this Friday, and Bourne Identity being one of my all-time favorite action/spy movies, I figured I'd see who else is excited about Supremacy.

I've always enjoyed Matt Damon's performances, whether it was Good Will Hunting or Dogma, but I never really was impressed by any of his movies until I saw The Bourne Identity. It's a funny story, actually, about when I first saw it--well, as funny as a story about getting your wisdom teeth pulled can be, heh.

I got my teeth out on a Friday afternoon a few months ago, might have been March 2002, on the first day of my Spring Break. Now, for those of you who haven't yet gotten your wisdom teeth out, it's not too pleasant, and for the next 48 hours after it, you basically can't do anything. You can barely talk, if you're able to at all, your mouth is bleeding like hell, and you can only eat baby food. Suffice to say, I wasn't enjoying myself at all, lol.

We had just gotten Comcast Digital Cable the month before, and in my moments of agony, my parents took pity on me, heh, and let me rent something. I'd either seen or read so-so reviews of most everything in the selection, except The Bourne Identity. It sounded interesting, so we tried it.

Man, it was excellent. I forgot all about the dull and sometimes stabbing pains in my mouth, lol. The acting was great, especially Franka Potente (Marie) and Chris Cooper (Conklin).

I was very impressed with the character of Marie in particular. She wasn't the helpless damsel in distress, but also wasn't the gung-ho warrior chick like Demi Moore in GI Jane. She was somewhere in-between, sometimes showing vulnerability, other times (like in the "Last chance, Marie" scene in the car before the chase) determined and confident. It was really refreshing.

The action scenes were a blast, as well. The first fight in the snowy park, or the Embassy, to climbing down the outer wall, to the Mini-Car chase...it's great. I think the Mini-Car chase is one of my favorite chases ever, and when you realize that Bourne looks at the map for five seconds and memorizes the route he subsequently speeds through, you appreciate it even more.

The ending to Bourne Identity was also very well done. I liked how [spoiler]we found out the financial hearing that Ward Abbott kept talking about was actually an investigation into questionable money handlings of Treadstone.

At the hearing, he explains how Treadstone never got off the ground, which we know is a lie, as it was the organization executing all of these hits. Ward then changes the subject, and begins talking about a new project, something entitled Black Breyer, which obviously is another cover to try to assassinate Bourne.[/spoiler]

So, if you couldn't already tell, I'm very excited to see what Bourne Supremacy is going to be like. They're not going to leave him alone, because they just can't take the risk, and he's going to make good on his promise to Conklin ("If I even think I feel someone following me, there is no measure of how fast and how hard I will bring this fight to your doorstep.")

I can't wait. :)

[Guest Vash331]

Yeah I'm defianately looking forward to the movie, i enjoyed the first one very much. I think it's cool when Bourne takes out guys by instincts, he doesn't even know what he's doing until after it's done. He's so fast when he does it too. I also thought it was cool when he was at the diner trying to convince the chick into believing he's a secret spy and he mentions that he already memorized all the liceanse plate numbers in the parking lot, I wish i was a spy.
It'll be cool, hey do you know when the 3rd one is coming out?

[Shinmaru]

I'm definitely looking forward to The Bourne Supremacy. I saw the trailer for the movie a couple of months ago, and never having saw The Bourne Identity, I decided to watch the DVD that my parents had bought. I thought the movie was very good, and I agree with Bean's points on it, the point about the action scenes in particular. None of the action scenes in Bourne Identity felt boring or forced, and I'm expecting more of the same from Bourne Supremacy, which is definitely a good thing.

Friday shall be a good day, indeed.

[NorykoAngelcry]

[color=darkred][SIZE=2][font=verdana]I also really enjoyed Bourne Identity. . it was the first spy movie that didn't feel like a James Bond movie. . His amnesia never felt corny, he just couldn't remember who he was or what happened to him that night. . When he grabbed the cops nightstick, it sort of clicked in him that he knew what he was doing, and wasn't something like he automatically could fight. It had to be triggered, like the rope in the boat, he said he just picked it up and did it. .

Anyways, it took me till recently to pick up the new DVD with the new opening and end to the movie. It was really refreshing to re-watch the movie, since it had been so long. I also picked up a free ticket to the movie (plus, I got the movie cheaper because Wal-Mart price matched some other store) . . so, I ended up paying like $16 for it. . and got an $8 movie ticket for free (they give you a coupon worth $10.50, but I only needed $8 of it where I live) . . Soooo, I will be looking forward to picking this movie up when it comes out.

In closing, I hope they don't do what the Matrix did. . If they try to kill the story-line and add a bunch of needless action scenes, I will seriously be upset (not like anyone would care. . lol), but it would be very dissapointing for the trilogy if they did. [/SIZE][/color][/font]

[Ryan]

[b][color=darkgreen]The Bourne Supremacy looks very good. It is an action packed spy movie! What is better than that? Well a few things but let's not get into that. I have yet to see the Bourne Identity, but I am trying to get my parents to take me to our local video store to rent it. So far I have heard nothing but great things about it. Hopefully I can see it before the Bourne Supremacy comes out here.[/color][/b]

[Brasil]

I swear, this summer has been the best summer for movies in a very long time.

I caught a 7:40 pm showing of The Bourne Supremacy at a local theatre, and the film is [i][b]amazing[/b][/i].

There are some shocking developments very, very early on, and of course thoughout the film, as well, but quite possibly the most important revelation in the film happens within the first 15 minutes, [i]so get there on time[/i]. I can't begin to tell you how annoyed I got after 13 different people walked in some 20 minutes after the movie started. I can understand walking in late to some romantic comedy or fluffy type of popcorn flick, but with something like the Bourne series, you need to be there from start to finish.

I'm not going to go into any plot/characters/etc here, because even if I were to Spoiler tag it, I feel I'd be doing the film itself and everyone here a grave disservice, even if they would want to read what happens or are just interested in why I'm so blown-away right now.

Everything you knew in B.I. pretty much gets turned on its head in Supremacy (and some got hit in the head, but I'm not going into that). As you may have expected from B.I., things were going to get complicated, but Supremacy takes that a step further with numerous factions at war with both Bourne himself and each other.

There is so much going on in Supremacy that you come close to getting confused, but the film very skillfully walks that fine line between plot complications and plot convolutions. There are something like 3, 4, or 5 different plot-lines going on during the film, but unlike X2, Bourne Supremacy does it right, and makes sure that the individual plots are coherent, rather than feeling slapped in there simply to make a longer film.

In fact, because they're doing so much in Supremacy, I started to doubt what they would do with Ultimatum, actually. From what I've read in the novel, Bourne Ultimatum (which is mind-blowingly fantastic), much of that has been included and addressed to completion in Supremacy. So, with all of this going on in Supremacy, that means they're going to be hitting empty for Ultimatum, right?

Wrong. Provided you've read Bourne Ultimatum, or at least the first 40 pages, the last 5 lines of Supremacy will make you go absolutely wild. It's...a great launchpoint for the film Bourne Ultimatum.

I'll finish this quick and hyper review with the following:

[b]GO SEE THIS FILM.[/b]

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]I thoroughly enjoyed The Bourne Identity, it was the way the film carried itself that really hooked me, it was so different from established spy flicks like James Bond or Mission Impossible. I remember I only went to see the film because I had a few hours to kill and happened to be near the cinema while this was showing. The first few minutes of the film snared me into what proved to be a trance that only stopped when the film itself finished.

I have to admit though that I'm not a huge fan of Matt Damon but this did quite a bit to redeem him in my eyes. The way he fluidly portrayed his character was very impressive and as NorykoAngelcry said everything he did looked natural, which I can bet was hard to pull off. I've not had a chance to read the book and I had actually no idea that the film was based on a book or rather one of a trilogy so I was quite enlightened when I read this thread.

I haven't seen so much as a peep of the film in terms of trailers on this side of the Atlantic but I look forward to Supremacy's release with great excitement. Heh this is my first post with my new username.[/SIZE]

[Guest spikespeigel24]

yeah the borune supremacy or however you spell it looks really good!! i cant wait to see it! :) matt damon is hottt!!!!!!!!

[natetron46]

haha wow. It looks awesome. I really liked the first one, just like bean said, it was one of my favorite spy thrillers of all time. The minute I saw the trailer I knew I was seeing this movie, as I am now broke, that might be harder than I expected.
Still, I cant wait for my next paycheck, because 8.50 of it is going right to matt damons pocket.

[terra]

I really wasn't a huge fan of [i]The Bourne Identity[/i], so I haven't gone to see [i]Supremacy[/i] yet and I probably won't (unless, like with [i]Spider-man 2[/i], someone forces me to, which is always a high possibility knowing my cruel friends). Anyway, for some reason none of it just struck me as all that original, nothing I hadn't really seen before. It's been a while since I've seen the movie so maybe my perception of it is distorted, but I certainly wasn't that impressed right afterwards and I was actually pretty surprised when I heard it did well enough to warrant a sequel.