The Bourne Supremacy
dir. Greengrass
Opens Fri July 23
Various Theaters
A film as unmemorable as it was financially successful, 2002’s The Bourne Identity was the cinematic equivalent of pulp fiction. Following Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), an amnesiac who discovered he was once a secret agent, Identity was bland but competent, providing a couple of vaguely enjoyable hours before politely vanishing from memory.
To the giddy excitement of no one, Bourne returns in The Bourne Supremacy, again doing what he did such an okay job of doing before: using clever spy tricks, acquiring Tom Clancy-ish espionage info, driving cars fast, and looking sad because he can’t remember who he is. Like its predecessor, Supremacy is decent, but far from surprising or interesting. Even the film’s opening takes a predictable turn to return Bourne to action—in the first ten minutes, Marie (Franka Potente), Bourne’s love interest from the first film, gets unceremoniously knocked off, leaving Bourne to mope around some more before vowing revenge on the CIA agents he’s convinced killed Marie.
The Bourne Supremacy is set up as a cat and mouse game; an interesting premise that’s sorely underutilized. The appeal of the Bourne character is his intelligence, yet he’s set up against US agents who are about as mentally competent as preschoolers. Sure, watching Bourne outsmart them is enjoyable for a while, but it’s also a bit too easy. (There’s truth in the title, at least: Bourne is so superior to his foes that it’s kind of like watching the bully go after the retarded kid at recess.)
There are hints of something more challenging and involving—some visceral car chases, a few impromptu escapes by Bourne, and a menacing (if underused) assassin, Kirill (Karl Urban). But as soon as these tantalizing threads appear, they’re swept under the smoothly marketable façade—then it’s back to the same old Bourne outsmarting the same old CIA, with nothing going on but tense music in the background.
The always talented Brian Cox and Joan Allen turn in solid enough performances as CIA agents, but predictably enough, they’re not used to their full potential—ditto with Urban, Potente, and the barely-glimpsed Julia Stiles. Damon makes being a vengeful amnesiac look easy, but there’s nothing added to the character that couldn’t have been filled in by a screenwriting computer program. Who knew being a secret agent was so boring? n
