The Bourne Ultimatum

2007

2/4 Stars

The third and final (for now) part of the Bourne trilogy picks up immediately where the second part left off. Jason Bourne is in Moscow and seriously wounded. Plagued by flashbacks, he must determine his origins and what happened to turn him into the super-assassin he is.

Once again, this is a globe-trotting picture, going from London, to Spain, to Italy, Morocco and to New York City. The on-location shots are great.

The action is more furious than ever and does not pause or let up at all throughout. This turns out to be problematic in this film as it begins to feel like an unending chase that lacks depth of story. The scenes of Bourne jumping from balcony to balcony and through countless windows in Morocco felt overdone by the end.

The Pam Landy CIA war room cliches are back in this film and feel stale-- "No time for introductions people! Let's get to work!" An expanded role for Save the Last Dance's Julia Stiles is also disappointing.

In the end, this felt like a movie that was moving so quickly that it lost its purpose. The sense of excitement that was created in the first film is missing here. This is not a bad film, it still has entertaining moments, but fails to measure up to its predecessors.