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July 26, 2004
The Bourne Supremacy: get these people a dolly
If the crowds at the AMC Empire 25 theater in New York were an accurate representation of the rest of the country's excitement about The Bourne Supremacy, then most of you probably either saw it this weekend, or got shut out of a sold-out show. I sincerely hope that most of you did not, however, consume a whole lot of the infernal beverage Sparks "alcohol energy drink" before you went to your screenings: the ingenous combination of caffeine and malt liquor was almost enough to make me puke.
Wait. What I meant to say is: the ingenous combination of caffeine and malt liquor and the nonstop jumping-jacks and interpretive dance routine the Bourne Supremacy cameraman was doing while shooting the entire movie was almost enough to make me puke.
Director Paul Greengrass probably has a lot of pissed off fight choreographers, makeup artists, and set designers on his hands, considering that all their hard work and careful planning was almost for nothing. So many key scenes in the movie were difficult to appreciate because of the inability to focus one's eyes on any fixed object--the camera jerked and shimmied all over the place for what were probably the best scenes. The inventive fight scene in Munich? Very cool. Also very blurry and nauseating. The car chase in Moscow? Awesome. But probably would have been better if I had been able to watch it without inducing an epileptic seizure.
My guess is that an insecure director would too easily decide that just by hurling the camera all over the place, he can make a scene more kinetic and thrilling. Why bother to set up a good shot in a really cool location when it will just look like a blurry mess to your increasingly swirly-eyed audience? The Bourne Supremacy is a fine movie, though maybe a little lacking in the identity and self-discovery issues that made the first one so good--I think this is because there was no Marie character to react to Jason as he tries to determine whether or not he is a killer at heart for most of the film. The supporting cast is also great, and I liked the terse Poor Man's Colin Farrell (tm Agent 0019) as the Russian hitman Kirill. Just be sure your stomach is well settled before you go to the theater.
