I hate when people come out of an action movie, and tell me, “The dialogue was pretty crap, the plot was terrible, the acting was horrific, the casting laughable, and even some of the effects looked a little fake. But it was an action movie, the action scenes were good, so I liked it!” I want to slap those people upside the head, and say, “Imagine if that film you just saw had good action scenes, AND great acting, AND great dialogue, AND a good plot, AND good effects! How awesome a film would it have been? Don’t accept second rate films, just because Hollywood has told you it’s naive to expect better!”

Well, from now on, as they recover from my slapping and shouting, they’ll be less likely to call the cops, as I hand them a copy of The Bourne Ultimatum. The Jason Bourne movies have set a new standard in action films, combining adrenaline-fused action with political intrigue, and a good sense of scope and focus. Jason Bourne isn’t out to save the world – he just wants to know who he is, and after three films, he’s finally going to figure out the thing we knew all along – he’s awesome.

The second film in the series, The Bourne Supremacy, was a little weighed down, with the politics and intrigue outweighing the action at times. Ultimatum fixes that problem by paring its plot down to a simple triangle: David Strathairn wants to capture Jason Bourne and kill him, Joan Allen wants to capture Jason Bourne and find out about his past, and Matt Damon as Jason Bourne wants the same thing as Joan Allen, except without the capturing. As Strathairn and Allen face off against one another at the headquarters of CIA, Damon races from various agents sent to kill him, while trying to piece together his personal history.

The acting is first rate, which it has to be, because the dialogue avoids unnecessary exposition. When Damon and the only other cast member to have survived all three movies Julia Stiles come together yet again, it’s up to the viewer to figure out their past from the little nuances in their acting. An easier way out would be to have the characters just explain their history, possibly directly to camera and with a flashback, and Damon’s ongoing amnesia would have given the director carte-blanche to do just that, but Paul Greengrass is made of sterner stuff. The director of United 93 knows better than to lay on the charm, or the smarm, and just lets these characters play out their story in a way that seems perfectly natural.

Greengrass also loves his handheld camera, the jittery the better. This is awesome for the action scenes, lending them a visceral and you-are-there feel which most action movies don’t even attempt. But the handheld also works against Greengrass. In an early scene, during one single shot, Damon’s face moves from the bottom right of the screen to top left. Which would be fine, except Damon isn’t moving – he’s sitting on some guys couch. The constant shaking, even during slow, emotional scenes, takes away a bit of the depth, and, quite frankly, gave me a headache.

A good trilogy is hard to find, and harder still to make, because each film needs to stand alone, but also be part of a congruent whole. The Jason Bourne series of movies is a perfect example of the trilogy, with Ultimatum standing high as the climax. The action is first rate, the performances exceptional, and viewers will leave the cinema wishing for more, but also probably wishing for no more – at some stage, the law of diminishing returns is probably going to kick in, and this is one trilogy we would rather have left in pristine condition.

4.5 / 5

Pros:
Handheld camera gives action a new intensity
Excellent performances throughout
An action movie with brains behind it.

Cons:
Handheld camera overused.