I Really Disliked The Bourne Ultimatum

[andyfox]

The movie got very good reviews almost everywhere and the audience at the theater I was in yesterday loved it--big applause at the end.

But I thought it was awful. I thought United 93 was the best film of last year, so it's not the director and his herky-jerky action style. There was simply no story, it struck me as a two-hour-plus chase. Damon never spoke more than ten words at a time, so I can't say whether his acting was good or not.

I always enjoy Joan Allen and David Strathairn and they were good here. The mad scientist struck me as silly (nice as it was to see Albert Finney), something we've seen in B movies forever and why the bigwigs in the CIA would work in an office tower and keep the curtains open, when Bourne himself already told Joan Allen he could see her in the last scene of the second Bourne movie, is beyond me. Much less how they could all leave the building and not leave somebody to keep Bourne from getting into Strathairn's office.

Not to mention that Damon could drive his car, backwards, off a building and walk away. And talk an assassin out of shooting him by asking him "do you know why you're killing me?".

Anybody else dislike it as much as I did?

[revots33]

Well I enjoyed the movie simply because I thought the chase scenes (especially the London train station sequence) were really exciting and well done.

Agree, though, that it was the weakest of the three. Almost zero plot just one chase sequence after another. And yes, you have to suspend your disbelief big-time - Bourne's like The Terminator, impossible to kill (or even injure) no matter how many insane car crashes he gets in. But in popcorn movies like this, I'm willing to suspend disbelief and go along for the ride.

All in all worth seeing but I still liked the first one best.

[Wes Mantooth]

[ QUOTE ]
... Damon never spoke more than ten words at a time...

[/ QUOTE ]

This is Damon at his best

[J.Brown]

andy,

i "get" all of your points, observations, and arguements as to why you didn't like it, but i think you can pick apart almost any movie if you choose to and come up with some valid reasons to hate on it.

i was entertained by it. did it have holes, of course it did, but the action was good, damon is totally believable, the character actors were great as you mentioned, and plenty of other reasons to enjoy this film.

not liking it is ok and even understandable. i would just be surprised if you could honestly answer that you didn't think this particular movie was worth the price of admission. i mean if you saw the first two you def. knew what type of film you were getting into. for the genre i think it is a very solid effort, but obv. not an all time great. keep up the movie reviews, btw, i almost always agree w/ them.

cheers. J.

[Dominic]

Andy, why do you hate freedom?

[andyfox]

Yeah, I guess my disappointment was from the rave reviews it has gotten and my great admiration for the director's last movie.

FWIW, my two companions both liked it, my sister-in-law a lot, my wife not quite as enthusiastically.

[Enrique]

[ QUOTE ]
why the bigwigs in the CIA would work in an office tower and keep the curtains open, when Bourne himself already told Joan Allen he could see her in the last scene of the second Bourne movie, is beyond me.

[/ QUOTE ]

That last scene in Bourne 2 is supposed to be that scene in Bourne 3. It wasn't that Bourne 3 started after the last scene in Bourne 2. The last scene in Bourne 2 was kind of a sneak peek into the next movie.

[daveT]

I would have named this post "I really disliked the Bourne Identity and didn't bother to see the rest."

If you are going to watch summer movies, the last thing you should expect is realism, good writing, good plotting, good story, good acting, good directing, good editing. In other words, expect the worst and you can't possibly be disappointed. I think that the critics are starting to give up trying to make an impact on audience opinions, so why not give it to their underling, gene shallot, wannabe critic they hired for the summer? Sure, this critic might be a college intern, afraid of turning in something bad, or maybe the critic is the neighbor's 14 year old.

The one thing that stands out in the summer movies are soundtracks, if you pay attention to those sort of things.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
The movie got very good reviews almost everywhere and the audience at the theater I was in yesterday loved it--big applause at the end.

But I thought it was awful. I thought United 93 was the best film of last year, so it's not the director and his herky-jerky action style. There was simply no story, it struck me as a two-hour-plus chase. Damon never spoke more than ten words at a time, so I can't say whether his acting was good or not.

[/ QUOTE ]

I find the Robert Ludlum Bourne series (or Ludlum in general) is sort of like real tasty "junk food". It can be fun while you eat it but you simply don't feel good about yourself after.

To feel better and watch real espionage rent Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy.

But my guess is you already know that [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

~ Rick

[Blarg]

He's supposedly much loved, and I read a really interesting article on him once, but what I've read of his has been really wooden.