The Bourne Supremacy

Judy and I went to see THE BOURNE SUPREMACY on Friday, and we both liked it. I've been told that the sound track irritated some people, but I didn't even notice it. Now I need to see the movie again and find out what I missed.

When I saw THE BOURNE IDENTITY, I wasn't entirely convinced that Matt Damon had what it takes to be an action star, but after seeing SUPREMACY, I think he just might. He didn't crack a smile during the entire movie. That takes acting chops, right?

The movie reminded me of why I read so many spy novels back in the early 1960s. Ian Fleming, Donald Hamilton, Len Deighton, John Le Carre, and a myriad lesser lights. I guess I liked the resourcefulness of the protagonists, the hairbreadth escapes, the shady half-world that they moved in. Interestingly enough, I read only one book by Robert Ludlum, and it wasn't in the Bourne series. I didn't much care for his writing; for me, the movie is much more fun than his book was.

What irritated me about the movie was the quick-cut action scenes. I have no idea why directors these days seem to think that the audience doesn't want to be able to tell what's going on. I like my action the old-fashioned way, but in BOURNE, as in so many movies these days, it's chopped into so many little pieces that (for me at least) it's incoherent.

Ludlum wrote the Bourne books as a trilogy, so I'm sure that a movie of THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM is in the planning stages. And I've read that Eric Van Lustbader is continuing the series with a new book called THE BOURNE LEGACY. (Lustbader has bestsellers of his own, so the money he's getting for taking Ludlum's place must really be good.)