Review of The Bourne Supremacy

Movie #36 - The Bourne Supremacy

The Bourne Supremacy is the sequel to The Bourne Identity, and the second movie in the trilogy. This film continues to follow Jason Bourne as he tries to unravel his confusing past with Treadstone. A new character, Pamela Landy, is introduced. She believes that Jason Bourne murdered two of her men, so she has every man and woman in the force hunting him down. We find out throughout the film that Ward Abbott has been carrying through with the Treadstone initiative without telling anyone. He has snipers set out to kill Bourne, and in the process they kill Marie. This puts Jason out on a revenge spree - trying to find out once and for all why Treadstone and Ward Abbott want him dead. New memories are brought up about another murder Bourne committed when he was working for Conklin. These new memories are a story that runs parallel with the main plot of finding Jason and bringing him to justice for the crimes he's committed...or not committed, as we find out right from the beginning of the film. Ward Abbott is brought to an end, and Pamela Landy comes to a sort of agreement with Bourne. End of movie two.

This film has a lot of action in it even though there's still a lot of back story and plot twists. The first film had action, but it had a lot more explanation and hiding of the two main characters. You can feel that the stakes are higher in this film because of Marie's death in the first 15 minutes of the movie. Jason literally spends the entire film tracking down Marie's killer and Treadstone. He doesn't stop until he eventually gets answers. This film also has Jason coming to terms with who he is, and he starts to learn a little bit more about his past and what Treadstone and Conklin had him doing as their "soldier." It's a good sequel to the first movie because it shows character development for Bourne. 

A line that caught my attention in the movie that I thought was pretty funny, seeing as these films have been adapted from a book series written by Robert Ludlum - Ward Abbott says to Pamela Landy, "You talk about this stuff like you read it in a book." haha Don't know if that was intended to be a connection by the writer, but that's what popped into my mind when I heard that.

One other thing that caught my attention in the film...well, in almost all action films really...if a man is THAT wanted by the authorities and the powers that be, don't you think they would make it a point to have ALL of the exits to a building covered? I mean, in the first movie, Jason just walks out into the alley and gets into a car...after having like a 10-minute conversation with Marie right out in the open. In the second film, he shimmies down a pipe in the back of the hotel and just walks away. Not possible. No way. Not if this guy is wanted by interpol, the government, the police, EVERYONE. That always bugs me when I'm watching action scenes. 

Overall, this movie is not quite as interesting as the first one. The first film helps me connect to the characters whereas this film gets confusing at times. I mean, I really had to pay attention to this movie to know what was going on. Sometimes, I don't have the patience or energy for that. It's like Inception - dear god - just let me enjoy a film without having to figure stuff out!

I leave you with my favorite scene:

I give The Bourne Supremacy 3 out of 5 stars.