The Bourne Trilogy

I finally saw the trailer for the new Bourne movie coming out this year, it stars Jeremy Renner and is directed by someone who isn't Paul Greengrass... I'm not too sure how I feel about it. The trailer doesn't look horrible, but I have a hard time imagining anyone else other then Matt Damon as Jason Bourne. Regardless, I picked up the trilogy on blu-ray recently and decided to give em a re-watch.

 The Bourne Identity
(2002) [Trailer]
Director: Doug Liman (IMDB)

Synopsis: Secret agent Jason Bourne awakes from a coma with amnesia after being rescued at sea and has to try and piece together who he is and what happened to him.

This is the maiden voyage for the Bourne series and sets the tone for all the others. It's suspenseful, trilling and loaded with solid action. Matt Damon really owns the character and does a great job with it. The fight scenes in this are incredible and do a great job with not getting bogged down or overly inflated... they're just quick and punchy and get right to the point. I never read the books for the Bourne series, and like I've said in the past on this blog, why would I now that they're movies? I know when this film came out a lot of people said the book was better, who cares... this movie does a fantastic job of taking a great story and bringing it to the big screen. I can say with ease, this is an extremely entertaining film and a must for action fans.

 

 The Bourne Supremacy
(2004) [Trailer]
Director: Paul Greengrass (IMDB)

Sypnopsis: Bourne and his boo are half way around the world and trying to keep low key when a turn of events brings him out of retirement.

This time around Paul Greengrass steps in to direct and does a brilliant job keeping the suspense at an all time high. A ton of people complained about the shaky cam feel of this when it came out, but those people are idiots. This style, when done poorly, can be annoying, but Greengrass is a master at it. The shaky cam lends itself to this film and it enhances the actions scenes, giving a personal feel to everything... almost like you're there filming it yourself. There's not much to criticize here, it's intriguing and nail biting stuff with lots of "what the fuck" moments... definitely worth a view if you haven't seen it.

 

The Bourne Ultimatum
(2007) [Trailer]
Director: Paul Greengrass (IMDB)

Synopsis: Bourne is back and still looking to unlock the secrets of his past.

This is probably my favorite of the three. Greengrass has fine tuned the series and delivers 100% on all the elements that made the other two enjoyable. Tangier was the highlight of the series for me, everything filmed there was just the best ever. I love the rooftop stuff and the jumping through windows shots were awesome, especially the last jump where the camera follows Damon through the window. The shaky cam is back and is effective as ever. There's also a lot of cool zooms and over head shots which were impressive. The resolution to Bourne's back story was finally delivered and seemed a decent way to tie up the story. I can't really see where the new movie is going to take  this series, I guess we'll have to wait and see.