The Bourne Ultimatum

The Film

"I think I know what Bourne's looking for," says Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) at one point in The Bourne Ultimatum. Frankly, I'm glad someone does, because I spent a considerable portion of the film's duration trying to work out precisely what was going on. The answer, I suspect, is "not a lot", for, beneath its external sheen of hyperkinetic camerawork and rousing chase scenes, this third (and, it would seem, final) instalment in the series fails to tread any new ground and, for the most part, seems content to relax into a rerun of the themes and objectives of its predecessors.

The action kicks off in the immediate aftermath of The Bourne Supremacy - slightly before it, actually, following Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) as he staggers, injured, through the streets of Moscow, attempting to evade the local authorities. Following this brief prologue, which again brings to a head the question of his identity, he comes to the attention of Blackbriar, the black-ops CIA division that has replaced the now defunct Treadstone programme which spawned Bourne. Believing him to be a threat to the division's secrecy, its chief, Noah Vosen (David Strathairn), orders Bourne's assassination - a most unwise move. A few bodies and several jump cuts later, Bourne is once again jetting around the world, taking in the sights of everywhere from London to Tangiers to New York, on his continued quest to discover who he is and where he came from.


Superficially, the plot is, as before, about Bourne's quest to uncover his identity, but, in reality, this is essentially just an excuse for a series of extremely effective and often shockingly well executed chase sequences. As an actor, Matt Damon is a bit of a blank slate, portraying Bourne as a stone-faced and largely emotionless automaton, resulting in director Paul Greengrass and his screenwriters' attempts to invoke pathos, such as when the character expresses remorse for the people he has killed, seeming insincere and forced. (It seems ironic that, just as Daniel Craig succeeded in making James Bond human again with Casino Royale, the Bourne series came along, taking the notion of the agent as a robotic killing machine to an entirely new level.) In a sense, this doesn't matter unduly, because the plot barrels forward at a sprightly enough pace for you to be sufficiently caught up in the immediacy to not notice that there is no real heart. In The Bourne Identity, by my reckoning the best of the trilogy by a significant margin, this element was provided by the character of Marie Kreutz (Franka Potente), who, as the everywoman flung into the world of cloak and dagger espionage, gave the audience a human connection that Bourne simply does not possess. By killing her off in The Bourne Supremacy, the series lost something that it has never been able to regain, despite attempts in this third outing to fit Julia Stiles' Nicky Parsons, whom Bourne latches on to in an attempt to make up for his failure to save Marie, into a similar role. Newcomer to the franchise David Straithairn, meanwhile, puts in a fine performance as Noah Vosen, but struggles to do much with what is essentially a paper-thin role.

There's something of a sense of irony that the bland enigma that is Bourne provokes pandemonium on such a global scale, but this worldwide urgency turns out to be highly effective, the various urban locales each sufficiently different from each other and interesting in their own right to prevent the action from becoming predictable. There are essentially three key set-pieces, all of which are extremely effective, but the best, by far, is an extended three-way chase through the labyrinthine streets of Tangiers, which eventually makes its way on to the rooftops before culminating in a thrilling bathroom beating. Greengrass and his stunt coordinator do some bravura work here, ratcheting up the tension and executing some impressively physical stunts.


Unfortunately, much of the action and stunt choreography ends up being obscured by Greengrass' choice to shoot the film with what can only be described as the aesthetic of a drunken baboon. The camera is never still, the photography entirely hand-held, and the effect not only verges on nauseating but quickly becomes tired and predictable. There is a time and place for frenetic camerawork, but it most assuredly is not during what should be a quiet, understated conversation between two characters! (I am reminded here of a quote on David Bordwell's web site, attributed to former editor Larry Mirisch: "They used to move their actors; now they move the camera.") This sort of cinematography is frequently praised as highly realistic, put I personally fail to see this point of view. What, precisely, is realistic about your viewpoint jittering about to the extent that it becomes difficult to see what's happening? Far from providing a sense of realism, the effect is distracting and continually serves to remind you that you are watching something artificial. The boom mike even dips into the frame on a couple of occasions! Throughout the film's duration, I found myself yearning for Doug Liman's comparatively understated treatment on The Bourne Identity.

The Bourne Ultimatum is a decent enough action flick, but not, I suspect, the revelation that many have claimed. While it is an improvement on The Bourne Supremacy if for no other reason than its success at upping the ante with its increasingly outrageous action set-pieces, both films remain in the shadow of the vastly superior The Bourne Identity, which proved that you can tell a gritty, tense espionage yarn while at the same time telling a solid and engaging story.

HD DVD Presentation

Given the recent demise of HD DVD, this is likely to be the last review I write for the format. It seems somewhat fitting, therefore, to go out on a high, and The Bourne Ultimatum is a high indeed. Presented in 1080p in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio, this VC-1 encode is one of the best to be released in the last year on either format: a crystal clear, expertly compressed image with not a hint of artificial sharpening or detail reduction in sight. I've said again and again that, while Universal's film-sourced releases often leave a great deal to be desired, when they have a digital intermediate source to work with, as is the case here, the results often come close to perfection. This is one of the ten high definition discs that I consider to show the format to its highest potential, and I struggle to imagine anyone being disappointed by it.

On a side note, it should be pointed out that this is a different encode from the one found on the UK HD DVD release. The UK version presented its location type and subtitles for non-English dialogue via player-generated subtitles (and a very poor job it did of it too), whereas, on the US version, they are properly burned-in, retaining the correct typography and, in the case of the location type, animation effect. Having seen both discs, I can't claim to have noticed any differences in image quality between them, but this US version would get my recommendation on the basis of the location type and subtitles alone.

No less impressive is the thunderous 48 kHz/24-bit Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track which accompanies the video (the only instalment in the Bourne franchise to feature a lossless audio track on HD DVD). Thunderously deep, crystal clear and impeccably balanced, this is the sort of mix that people are referring to when they use the word "immersive". It's a cliché, admittedly, but you actually do feel as if you are there, right in the middle of the action.

English and dubbed French Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 tracks are also provided, in addition to English SDH and French subtitles (Spanish subtitles are listed on the packaging but are, in fact, not provided). These cover the film itself and the bulk of the extras, with the exception of the commentary and U-control features.

Extras

In addition to including its own HD DVD-exclusive extras (see below), this release replicates all the bonus content from the standard definition DVD release, starting with an audio commentary by director Paul Greengrass, who flies solo for the duration of the track, and does a good job of keeping it going, imparting a mixture of anecdotes about the shooting and observations about the plot and character motivation, with only a handful of lapses into silence. I wouldn't call it essential listening by any stretch of the imagination, but it's pleasing enough to listen to.

12 minutes' worth of deleted scenes follow. The majority of these are actually extensions of scenes that made it into the final film, taking place primarily inside CIA headquarters. Man on the Move: Jason Bourne, meanwhile, is essentially an exploration of the film's five key international locations: Berlin (doubling for Moscow), Paris, London, Madrid and Tangier (New York, the setting of the climax, shows up later in its own featurette). All told, they run for just under 24 minutes in total. The remaining featurettes focus on the Tangiers rooftop chase, the film's combat choreography, the stunt driving, and the chase through New York City, respectively. All but the latter run for under five minutes, and are watchable enough but fairly light and fluffy.

These extras are all presented in standard definition anamorphic widescreen.

HD DVD Exclusive Extras

In addition to the My Scenes option which virtually all Universal's HD DVDs include (allowing users to bookmark their favourite scenes for easy reference), there are three main additional features which only appear on the HD DVD. The primary piece is the U-Control feature, which runs during the film and is essentially split into three different elements, each of which can be toggled on or off at the viewer's discretion.

The first, and most substantial, is the Picture in Picture mode, which takes the form of behind the scenes footage and interviews with key (and not so key) members of the cast and crew. The on-set footage tends to be the best, while the cast members' attempts to explain their characters and their motivation often resemble clutching at straws. Unfortunately, this content tends to be rather sporadic in nature, with numerous lengthy stretches in which the film simply plays on its own. You can, luckily, select each of the individual segments from the U-Control menu, allowing you to jump to them without having to sit through the entire film and waiting for them to show up.

The second piece is the Blackbriar Files, which essentially consists of a series of text-based overlays, providing biographies on certain characters and details on the routes Bourne takes during his international jaunts, and distance travelled. Fun, but it feels a lot like padding. Finally, and least impressively, we have what really is little more than an extended advertisement for the Volkswagen Touareg featured in the film. This is, as one other reviewer put it, one of the most nauseating abuses of product placement you're ever likely to come across.

We also have an interactive game entitled "Be Bourne Spy Training", which, oddly enough, reminds me a lot of the child-oriented games that Disney insists on cramming on to its DVDs. Essentially, you are invited to watch 20 different clips from the film and answer a question on each of them, to determine the effectiveness of your powers of observation. Apparently, you can also upload your score to compare with other users online, but I was unable to get either this or the Web-Enabled Features listed on the menu to work. Each time, my system claimed that it needed to be restarted to connect to the Internet, but to no avail. If web-enabled content such as this is the future of bonus features, please count me out.

Overall

Jason Bourne's third and no doubt final outing on the HD DVD format is a resounding success in terms of audio-visual quality. While the bonus materials are a bit of a mixed bag, it's the presentation of the film itself that matters, and in that regard, this release is among the best available on either format.

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