The Jason Bourne Travel Log

Film: The Bourne Ultimatum (Paul Greengrass 2007)
Watched: 12th July 2008
Where: At home on TV

I'm still not sure if I'm a fan of the Bourne Trilogy, maybe it's because I'm an old fashioned 007 fan or maybe it's just cause these films are not as exciting and action packed as people would have you believe. It might also be because the whole trilogy shows what great city breaks I could be having rather than being sat at home in front of the TV... Oh well. Like the other two films in the trilogy the plot involves our lead Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) trying to find out who he really is, what he's been doing, and what exactly his job is supposed to be. It sounds like a typical day in the life really, thank goodness he's a secret agent and not some kind of 'clerk'. In Ultimatum we find out many of the answers to these questions. He finds out who he was and that his name's David Webb, nowhere near as cool sounding and impressive as Jason Bourne. He finds out that he signed up for the job of killing lots of people, that he chose to have his original identity wiped away despite being warned and that his life before was probably not quite as exciting as it is now. Just a little bit of Randal from Clerks sums up this film nicely,

"You sound like an asshole! Jesus, nobody twisted your arm to be here. You're here of your own volition. You like to think the weight of the world rests on your shoulder. Like this place would fall apart if Dante wasn't here... You know, that guy Jay's got it right, man. He has no delusions about what he does."

I think the trilogy would have been much more interesting if there was someone that gave it to him in plain English.

Anyway, we don't really watch the films for the plot so it was a shame that the story, location and action didn't seem to excite me as much as I'd hoped. The editing seemed to be too fast and jumpy (perhaps I'm getting old) so it never felt like he was actually in a real fight or a real car chase. I'm not sure why I didn't get more thrills from the set pieces, maybe they were just too clean and too well executed.

Anyway, here is the Jason Bourne travel map for those city break enthusiasts.

We have the fourth installment of the Bourne movies to look forward to in 2010, how well David Webb comes to terms with his place in the world will be interesting to see. I hope the Quickstop are hiring.