The Bourne Supremacy (HD-DVD)
Picture: B+
Sound: B Extras: B Film: B
Though the studios and several independent outlets are
always looking for and hoping for the next Star Wars action/fantasy
bombast that will turn into a money machine, Hollywood and similar forces are
also always still looking for the next James Bond whether they will admit it or
not. Fox did True Lies and would
still like a follow up a dozen years later and counting. Columbia did XXX, only to follow it
with the failed XXX2, but was willing to spend some serious money on
both. Paramount revived Mission:
Impossible with big money results and MGM/UA managed to revive Bond after
the Cold War ended, leading to a new cycle of spy films that included their own
release of John Frankenheimer’s amazing Ronin. That leaves Universal, no stranger to good thrillers, who took
Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne Cold War book series and made it into a series of
hit films.
No, they have not been as big as the Tom Cruise M:I
films, but have still been big enough. The
Bourne Identity actually was the second filming of the book after a mixed
TV mini-series with Richard Chamberlain, but Matt Damon (in some of his best
work to date) took on the title role.
We will review that one on HD-DVD later, but the feature removed the
Cold War reasons he was developed as a superior fighter and as the book and
mini-series show, more of the book went with it than it probably should
have. The editing was eye-catching and controversial,
something carried over to some extent in The Bourne Supremacy, the 2004
sequel that has Paul Greengrass (United 93) smoothly taking over from
Doug Liman in a story where the secret U.S. agency that created him is out
seeking him again and should have just let him be.
That is bad news for him, but of course, good news for
fans of the first. As a matter of fact,
with Liman off doing the awkward Mr. & Mrs. Smith (reviewed twice
and counting on this site), Greengrass stepped in and had a better script to
work with. Now that the origins were
out of the way, he could run with the film and the idea of Bourne as a top
assassin, the film did not have the pretense or choppiness of the first. The CIA screws up an operation and to tie up
two loose ends, they decide to frame Bourne for it. He does not trust any of them, for a good reason, so now he has
to fight them and figure out just what really is going on.
Not a popular storyline in a quasi-fascist
pseudo-patriotic time, which is one of the reasons it works so well. The Spy genre at its best has been about
cutting through the B.S. propaganda that the government is your happy friend
when the government is there to govern coldly with the daily headlines of
botched operations, outings of CIA agents (recently spun as something that was
“not illegal” as if that could justify it, but there are idiots who will be
conned into anything) and other scandals reinforce the cold world of this film.
The best Spy works let the audience in on what is going
on, even when there is a mystery about the proceedings. The acting, action and plotting are better
here than in the previous Bourne film or the last two overblown Brosnan Bonds
for that matter. That does not make
this Ronin or Munich, but it is much more in that tradition than
the overblown, silly films the genre has also always produced since Hollywood
thought the best way to compete against Bond was to do spoofy variants, as if
the series’ days were numbered.
Also like those better thrillers, you have some fine
actors well cast in roles worthy of their talents, including Brian Cox, Joan
Allen, Franka Potente, an unusually well-cast Julia Stiles, Gabriel Mann and
even Karl Urban in another good film for a change. Combined with Tony Gilroy’s solid screenplay, the franchise
really starts reaching its full potential and its ambition to be original is
one of its best aspects. Though he
penned the first and is penning the next, Greengrass has brought out the better
points of his work and what they pulled off here does not always get the
recognition it deserves. That the next
Bond film is Casino Royale going back to the grittiness and edge of the
early books speaks volumes about its influence. And now we have it in HD.
The 1080p digital High Definition 2.35 X 1 image is a nice
surprise, with very good color and definition throughout despite the slightly
darker nature of the cinematography nicely done by Oliver Wood. This is a great test of any HD video
playback and certainly an improvement over the disappointing standard DVD
version. The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix
is also better than the standard Dolby 5.1 from that regular DVD, though I wish
this still had a DTS or DTS-HD 5.1 option, as it still seemed some subtle
detail was absent. John Powell’s score
is decent too, as is the fine sound mix.
Extras repeat the standard DVD’s treasure trove of nine
featurettes, deleted scenes, Greengrass commentary and the like, but adds a new
interactive option regular DVD could never deliver allowing for a more
interactive way to access the behind the scenes aspects of the production. All are solid and up there with the best
James Bond special editions, which is the point. A third installment is on the way and we can only hope it will be
at least as good as this one. Until
then, this is one of the best HD-DVDs to date and its predecessor is coming to
HD-DVD soon, so check back to the site for more coverage.
- Nicholas Sheffo
