Bourne to be Wild
Maybe he’ll get involved in a war in SE Asia and become disilluisioned in…
Bourne on the Fouth of July.
He crosses the mason-dixon line and becomes Borin’.
Combine Stephen King and Mrs. Doubtfire for the cross-dressing horror of…Dolores Claibourne?
I wish they’d kill Matt Damon off and make a movie with just Franka Potente. You know, a movie that’s Bourne-Free.
Ohhh. there is a new trailer out:
http://www.themoviebox.net/movies/2004/0-9ABC/Bourne-Supremacy,The/trailer-page.html
The new one is remarkable in that it pretty much has every scene from the first trailer, 90% of the same voice over, and no new scenes. I don’t really care. I hope this movie comes off as well as the first movie
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I don’t understand the love for The Bourne Identity. The characters are bland at best, the plot is average. The movie never emotionally engaged me. Fun car chase scenes and a couple original sequences are about it. I think Damon does an ok job with what he has to work with, but compare a great spy character like James Bond with Jason Bourne for a moment. I remember the end was supposed to be suspenseful, but I just didn’t care or necessarily even understand what was going on. A mediocre film in my book.
My thought is that people see this as the cure for a flagging Bond series. So they elevate a mediocre film since they want to promote a kind of Bondian successor. Sort of like an average looking woman standing next to a dog-ugly woman seems quite attractive. I predict the same thing could happen in Sci-fi… the flagging Trek series leaves an emotional void thereby making a mediocre (but open to sequels) Sci-fi movie seem good, thus leading fans to call out for more…
Well, you guys are getting your second Bourne series movie. Yippee. Hopefully this one will be good enough to not need a false elevation to be given the thumbs up.
JB, baby, once more. A fresh start on the all-over-again train.
Nobody is looking for an endless series of these films. 3 good ones and we’ll all be happy.
And Star Trek? Say what huh?
I thought the first one was okay. It did okay business at the box office, but apparently it did amazing numbers in the DVD sales and rental market, which is why the sequel was green lit.
The studio probably views it as a decent tent pole of a summer franchise. There’s plenty of Bourne books that have been written (that means lots of potential sequels), these movies don’t require huge amounts of special effects (which costs $$$$), and they only have to pay Matt Damon (it’s not like they need to shell out tons of cash for a star actor for a bad guy).
Plus, I imagine Bourne skews toward an “older” audience (i.e. people who read. i.e. anyone above the age of 19). Face it: save for Spider Man 2 and The Passion, this has been a dismal year at the box office (take away those two aforementioned movies and we’re down from last year). The typical mindless popcorn flick is losing its legs, and “older folks” want something that wasn’t made primarily for a teenage audience in mind.
And I must admit that while I was kinda underwhelmed by the first one, this new one looks bad ass. I’m hoping that, as with Spiderman 2, the sequel will take off since it’s not burdened with all the exposition required in the original.
You mean the “I don’t know what my past is” exposition? In some ways discovering Bourne’s “origin” was the centerpiece of the plot negated that problem.
Koontz, what are you even talking about? No one thinks of James Bond in relation to the first movie - hell, Bourne isn’t even a spy. He’s an assassin. When me and my buddies walked out of the Bourne Identity pumping our fists at the best straight action film released in the last five years, not one of us ever said: “James Bond… MOVE OVER!”
You mean the “I don’t know what my past is” exposition? In some ways discovering Bourne’s “origin” was the centerpiece of the plot negated that problem.[/quote]
To me, that’s the big question mark with the new movie. Matt Damon was really good as the guy who doesn’t know who he is, doesn’t know what’s going on, and has these abilities that he’s not sure about.
In the second movie, he knows all that stuff–you’re more in standard thriller territory (From the preview, it looks like he’s also pro-active than in the first one, which is another move back to standard thriller stuff). Can they still keep the character interesting?
Gav
Gav
Well, if you know the books, Damon at the end of the Bourne Identity movie still really has no clue who he is. He knows who/what one of his “covers” is, but that’s it. Bourne Supremacy could try to throw a curve by going to the books on who the Bourne character really is.
The one thing I really enjoyed about the Bourne Identity was the realism in which some of the characters acted when faced with certain situations. The girl reacted like a normal person would when faced with those kind of circumstances. Instead of turning into a super fighting chick.
Kitenn…
First post but I hope you’ll all get to know me :)
Yeah, but what’s more “standard” than a story with a mysterious hero who can’t remember his identity? I liked the first Bourne a fair bit – though I think the realism stuff is overblown, especially in light of that ludicrous stairwell scene near the end – but the secret identity crap wasn’t a factor at all. That stuff seemed really, really hackneyed. I don’t think anyone can make the “wow, I did that? I wonder who I am?” theme interesting. It’s been done way too much the past ten years. It’s especially annoying for gamers, who get a protagonist with amnesia in every second release these days.
I go to see the Bourne movies to see Matt Damon get put under arrest, have two or three armed guards lead him away, and than watch as he snaps out and kicks everyone’s ass with the THUMP, WAP, SUUUMP, CRACK sound effects going in the background. Awesome.
If the entire movie was just a setup for a few scenes like this, I will gladly pay for a (matinee) ticket.
Yeah, but what’s more “standard” than a story with a mysterious hero who can’t remember his identity? I liked the first Bourne a fair bit – though I think the realism stuff is overblown, especially in light of that ludicrous stairwell scene near the end – but the secret identity crap wasn’t a factor at all. That stuff seemed really, really hackneyed. I don’t think anyone can make the “wow, I did that? I wonder who I am?” theme interesting. It’s been done way too much the past ten years. It’s especially annoying for gamers, who get a protagonist with amnesia in every second release these days.[/quote]
I don’t think that it’s that standard for a summer action flick (either that, or a lot of summer action flicks have passed me by). In games, sure, b/c they have a totally different set of narrative requirements than film.
But, in any case, I wasn’t talking so much about the freshness of the concept, more that Matt Damon works as the guy who doesn’t quite know what’s going on. I’m not so sure I buy him a standard James Bond-type action hero.
Gav
Just got back from seeing this, and I have to say that I was disappointed. I don’t want to give any spoilers, so I’ll just say that even though there was plenty of action, there wasn’t enough action. There was never much tension.
Maybe it was just the recycled situations: oh look, he’s escaping from the authorities AGAIN. Or maybe it was the awful awful horrible atrocious camera work that makes The Blair Witch Project look like Steadicam work. But whatever it was, the movie really didn’t do it for me.
Yeah, I was dissapointed with parts but overall I still thought it was an average film. The shaky cam was by far my biggest gripe. The last one had great fight choreography, so I guess the shaky cam was for an edgy look. (possible spolier) The scene at the end was supposed to show he was a different man, but it was just bizarre. I wont’ say more until people have had some time to see it. Too bad, this could have been a promising franchise.
I don’t understand why this movie is getting such good reviews. The camera work is truly retarded - the most pointless, distracting use of non-stop shaky cam since Dancer In The Dark.
Supremacy is nowhere near as good as Identity. Though as far as critically overpraised crapola goes, it’s also nowhere near as bad as Hellboy.