The Bourne Ultimatum (Paul Greengrass, 2007)
What a transition from Badlands to this — a film in which the passing of time is central to the experience and another which does not give you the option to experience time > the film forces you to try to catch the time that seems to always be out of reach. One of the ways that Greegrass tries to make the action more exciting than it is, particularly towards the beginning of the film, is through a technique that is a bit overly used initially: the frame and zoom. The camera in close-up frames a document for example that has some importance to the plot. The shot stays on the document for a split second before it zooms into an extreme close-up, then cut to another shot. This creates a forced kinetic feeling in the audience, unnecessary.
A film with no emotion — the characters are in distress for two hours — no smiles, no hint at a feeling. This is just one long chase with impossible stunts, incredible abilities, which in the end turn what is identified as action, adventure, drama, mystery into just comedy — it becomes laughable when Bourne is able to pickpocket motorcycle keys so easily, when he drives off a roof, crashes, and gets out and starts to run, when he uses an NYPD car to play bumper cars in NY — the film has no bearing on reality at all, much like the latest James Bond, Casino Royale — the acting is not smooth, smart, charming — it’s just fast, acton oriented, with nothing for the audience to latch on to.
Oh, and of course Bourne can hot wire a motorcycle which is sufficiently light weight for him to ride the “casbah” of Tangiers as if he were competing in a motorcycle trial competition. He jumps, hops over walls, and races through windy, narrow streets — Bourne can do it all except make a worthwhile film.
(Riviera Theater in Santa Barbara > Cinema Society of the SB Film Festival)
Low Recommendation: for its chaotic film direction, as an example of style over substance, of how films have lost any kind of intellectual interest / pure, mindless roller coaster.