The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

[CaptainJackSparrow]

I thought the first was very boring, will I like this?

[4815162342]

Get Some Rest Pam/10

[acab]

This is probably my favourite Bourne film. The Moscow chase and the scene with his first victim's daughter make it stand above most of the similar action thrillers. Damon was excellent, the script was tight and well written and Greengrass brought so much energy and suspense to the picture. It's one of my favourite action films.

[John Marston]

Best of the series

[RobinHood26]

The last 15 minutes of this movie are just perfect, besides that the picture does have the same problems Identity had but Greengrass handles it all better. 

 

The scene of him saying good bye to his girl friend underwater is masterful the whole picture just stops and calms for a second. 

 

B (86)

[TheMovieman]

Still a huge fan of this one and as good as the first one was, this was better between the action and expanding the characters. Joan Allen makes for a good (quasi) adversary and Damon further owns the role.

 

****½/*****, (A, 9/10, 3.5/4)

[BoxOfficeZ]

Good story, good acting, but holy shit that shaky camera gives me motion sickness. Its fucking dumb. 

 

B+

[bartonfink]

Good story, good acting, but holy shit that shaky camera gives me motion sickness. Its fucking dumb. 

 

B+

 

I don't think it's dumb. Its frenetic camerawork correspond with Jason Bourne himself. He's a being chaotic. He doesn't even know who he is and doesn't have any clue about overall situations, but always should run and hide and seek. Frantic style clearly represents his painful chaos.

[BoxOfficeZ]

I don't think it's dumb. Its frenetic camerawork correspond with Jason Bourne himself. He's a being chaotic. He doesn't even know who he is and doesn't have any clue about overall situations, but always should run and hide and seek. Frantic style clearly represents his painful chaos.

 

I'm sorry, but this makes zero sense. You might have a point if only the action scenes did it, but even in some of those there's Bourne who knows exactly what he's doing and you can't see what's going on. Or like a simple scene showing Bourne going down literally like 10 steps and the cameraman is going down the stairs with him and its shakes the camera all over the place even though there's clearly no action at all. Simple scenes of just standing around talking, lets shake the camera anyway! 

 

Anyway you don't need to shake a camera to give the audience a sense of chaos. You can do this without making the audience nauseous. Its lazy as hell filmmaking. Usually I don't mind it if its done right, but it definitely goes overboard in this film. "Look at this great action scene!" yeah sure if I can tell what's going on. The camera whips around too fast to follow anything. 

Edited September 20, 2014 by BoxOfficeZ

[bartonfink]

I'm sorry, but this makes zero sense. You might have a point if only the action scenes did it, but even in some of those there's Bourne who knows exactly what he's doing and you can't see what's going on. Or like a simple scene showing Bourne going down literally like 10 steps and the cameraman is going down the stairs with him and its shakes the camera all over the place even though there's clearly no action at all. Simple scenes of just standing around talking, lets shake the camera anyway! 

 

Anyway you don't need to shake a camera to give the audience a sense of chaos.You can do this without making the audience nauseous. Its lazy as hell filmmaking. Usually I don't mind it if its done right, but it definitely goes overboard in this film. "Look at this great action scene!" yeah sure if I can tell what's going on. The camera whips around too fast to follow anything. 

 

Why should handheld be allowed in only the action scenes? I appreciate the movie because even the most simple moment camera doesn't slow down. It's aesthetic choice that allude to show Bourne's life is whole anxiety itself and nervousness is the movie's main sentiment. I think it's not lazy as hell filmmaking but appropriate one. Actually blindly criticizing frenetic camera movement is lazy as hell criticism.

[BoxOfficeZ]

Why should handheld be allowed in only the action scenes? I appreciate the movie because even the most simple moment camera doesn't slow down. It's aesthetic choice that allude to show Bourne's life is whole anxiety itself and nervousness is the movie's main sentiment. I think it's not lazy as hell filmmaking but appropriate one. Actually blindly criticizing frenetic camera movement is lazy as hell criticism.

So... basically your point is its okay to make the audience not see the action and they should be nearly nauseous, and that all my points are lazy. Got it. I'm totally blindly criticizing it even though I made a point on that its fine if its not overdone. 

 

So when we see all the camera shaking around the CIA guys chatting or the girl in the ending, yeah their life is frantic, anxiety, and nervous obviously.

 

We'll just have to agree to disagree. 

Edited September 20, 2014 by BoxOfficeZ

[bartonfink]

So... basically your point is its okay to make the audience not see the action and they should be nearly nauseous, and that all my points are lazy. Got it. I'm totally blindly criticizing it even though I made a point on that its fine if its not overdone. 

 

So when we see all the camera shaking around the CIA guys chatting or the girl in the ending, yeah their life is frantic, anxiety, and nervous obviously.

 

We'll just have to agree to disagree. 

 

Well I don't think its style is overdone. Because I can see and enjoy the movie's action scenes not with difficulty. And no, I didn't feel any nauseous. You can watch overdone action movies like Taken 2 or Transporter 3 and they make Bourne series look like Robert Bresson or Aki Kaurismaki's films. And as I said, nervousness is the movie's main sentiment. Of cause CIA guys's chatting scene should evoke substantial thrills. And the ending with the girl should evoke taciturn and cold-hearted killer's calm yet intense remorse. And shaking camera like soundlessly sobbing guy makes me understand Bourne's inner mind.So I got the artistic choice that camera doesn't have to be still.

 

But yeah, we'll have to agree to disagree.

Edited October 3, 2014 by bartonfink

[ChD]

Loved it. Liked the occasional emotional moments thrown in between action filled sequences. I think it was better than the first one.

A

Edited January 11, 2015 by ChD

[Ethan Hunt]

A+

[Blankments]

The Bourne Supremacy brings Paul Greengrasss' brilliantly kinetic style to the franchise. The director is one of the few that understand how to utilize shakey cam well; bringing a visceral style to the world of Bourne. Damon is once again great as the lead character and Joan Allen is a more than welcome addition to the franchise. It's consistently exciting in action and engrossing in plot. The Bourne Supremacy is what took this franchise from an amusing lark to one of the best spy franchises out there. B

 

Please note: I watched this on Xfinity on Demand, which cropped it to 16:9, interrupted it with commercial, edited it for content, and made me listen to my father's comments about how confusing or violent it was. Since this was a rewatch, I felt as though reviewing was still appropriate despite the handicaps.

 

Also, these threads should be merged: